Pressure on Kohl to name names

Germany's former chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, was under mounting pressure yesterday to identify secret donors to his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after one of his closest associates demanded that he name names immediately.

A day after prosecutors confirmed that they are opening a full-scale criminal investigation into Dr Kohl's network of secret accounts, his former chief-of-staff, Mr Friedrich Bohl, added his voice to calls for the former chancellor to come clean on the donations.

Dr Kohl has admitted accepting almost £1 million in anonymous cash donations between 1993 and 1998 and channelling the money through secret accounts to local CDU organisations.

The former chancellor is not suspected of benefiting personally from the donations, but prosecutors believe there is a reasonable suspicion that he may be guilty of misusing the funds to the detriment of his party.

The CDU faces a financial disaster as a result of Dr Kohl's actions, which violate laws governing party funding: the party could have to pay millions of pounds in fines.

It will publish its annual report for 1998 today, but officials admit that it will be incomplete on account of uncertainties over the level of secret contributions received during that year.

Mr Bohl's abandonment of his former patron represents a major blow to Dr Kohl and signals that the CDU leadership is losing patience with the former chancellor.

Until Dr Kohl identifies the donors, the suspicion will linger that government decisions may have been influenced by the donations.

Dr Kohl received support yesterday from a former cabinet minister, Mr Jurgen Ruttgers, who leads the CDU in the state of North Rhine Westphalia.

Mr Ruttgers accused the president of the Bundestag, Mr Wolfgang Thierse, of prejudging the case against Dr Kohl and abandoning his constitutional neutrality.

"He has behaved in a massively partisan manner favouring the Social Democrats," Mr Ruttgers said.

The scandal has created deep divisions within the party Dr Kohl led for 25 years, with younger members calling for a clean break with their former leader while some older supporters insist that the former chancellor is the victim of a politically-inspired witchhunt.