Germany has denied suggestions that chancellor Angela Merkel told France's president Nicolas Sarkozy she planned to clear Roma camps.
The French president yesterday said he had Ms Merkel's support in the ongoing row with the European Commission, which has accused Paris of breaking EU law by sending Roma migrants back to Romania and Bulgaria, and compared it to the behaviour of Nazi Germany.
"Madame Merkel indicated to me her desire to proceed with the evacuation of camps in the coming weeks," Mr Sarkozy told reporters at the end of the summit.
Germany denied Mr Merkel had said any such thing.
"Chancellor Merkel spoke neither during the European Council nor during talks with French president Sarkozy on the sidelines of the Council about supposed Roma encampments in Germany, not to mention their clearance," her spokesman said in a statement.
"The government supports France with regard to the form and tone of the criticism from EU commissioner Reding," he added.
European justice commissioner Viviane Reding, referring to Nazi Germany's persecution of gypsies during World War Two, said on Tuesday she was afraid about a return to ethnic targeting and Europe's dark past.
After an angry exchange with Mr Sarkozy at a closed-door summit lunch, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso distanced himself from Ms Reding's "exaggerated comments" but said in a clear reference to the French reaction: "Others should think about doing the same."
France stepped up the expulsion of Roma migrants during the summer, rounding up families in illegal camps and offering them a financial incentive to leave the country as part of an initiative by Sarkozy to tighten security.
More than 8,000 expulsions have taken place this year.
German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said he thought there had been a mix up between Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel.
"I suspect there is a misunderstanding here because the chancellor said publicly and to me how the talks went and there was not such an announcement from the German chancellor," he told German public radio today.
"That would violate the German constitution, and there are no such deliberations," he added.
Reuters