Iraq war data story 'a smear'

BERLIN - US newspaper reports that German intelligence agents helped the American-led invasion of Iraq were a smear tactic against Berlin as a European power firmly opposed to the war, leading German politicians said.

The politicians from major parties, including the Social Democrats of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, were reacting to reports that could embarrass current Chancellor Angela Merkel because she leads a coalition government of her conservatives with the SPD.

Germany denied on yesterday a New York Times report that its intelligence officials obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein's defence plan for Baghdad and passed it on to US commanders a month before the 2003 Iraq invasion.

"This is an attempt to discredit the policies of Gerhard Schroeder, policies that were right," SPD chairman Matthias Platzeck told a group of foreign journalists yesterday.

Platzeck's comments were echoed by Opposition leaders in Germany, which like France strongly opposed the Iraq war.

They said the reports that appeared to make the German Government look hypocritical may be fiction deliberately planted to embarrass the many German critics of US policies on Iraq.

The German BND intelligence agency has also rejected the report as wrong and German Opposition leaders were suspicious of the motives behind its publication.

The New York Times story followed other media reports last month about the BND agents which prompted Merkel's new Government to issue a special report to Parliament.

- REUTERS