- BERLIN (Reuters) --
Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday ruled out sending German troops to Iraq
after his defense minister said a deployment could be possible in the
future.
-
- Defense Minister Peter Struck had said on Wednesday that
Germany, which staunchly opposed the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein,
could eventually send troops to Iraq, although he ruled out any such move
for now.
-
- But Schroeder was quick to restate Germany's position
after the remarks, made by Struck in a newspaper interview and in a
briefing
to reporters at a NATO summit in Romania.
-
- "The position of Germany will not change. We will
not send soldiers to Iraq," Schroeder said at a news conference in
Rome, after meeting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
-
- But analysts said Struck's comments, some made after
a telephone conversation with Schroeder on the troops issue, might signal
a subtle shift in the German stance and could be linked to the upcoming
U.S. presidential election.
-
- "I have made very clear that within the foreseeable
future, it is out of the question," Struck said at the meeting in
the Romanian ski resort of Poiana Brasovin, in response to a question about
sending German troops to Iraq.
-
- "But certainly there could be times ahead, in years
to come, when Germany will get involved," Struck added.
-
- In his 2002 re-election campaign Schroeder derided plans
to attack Iraq as an adventure that would set the Middle East ablaze,
damaging
relations with the Bush administration.
-
- U.S. ELECTION
-
- Struck's comments came just hours before President Bush
goes up against his Democratic challenger John Kerry in a third and final
debate.
-
- In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper,
Struck
welcomed Kerry's call for an international summit on Iraq.
-
- Kerry has argued during his campaign that he would have
more success than Bush in getting traditional U.S. allies and Iraq war
opponents like Germany and France to help in Iraq.
-
- "We have to see this in view of the American
election
campaign and as a positioning of the German government for whoever becomes
the next president," said Christian Hacke, a political science
professor
at Bonn University.
-
- An official at the State Department, who asked not to
be named, said Secretary of State Colin Powell had spoken by telephone
with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer, who reaffirmed Germany's
policy
on troops.
-
- "We noted the defense minister's comments and then
noted Chancellor Schroeder's (spokesman's comments). We obviously consider
the chancellor authoritative. So as far as we are concerned there has been
no change in Germany's policy," the official said.
-
- The Struck comments drew quick criticism from the Greens,
coalition partners of Schroeder's SPD party.
-
- Dietmar Herz, a political science professor at Erfurt
University, suggested the government might be trying to send a message
about future involvement.
-
- "The German government's Iraq stance is very popular
at home and there won't be any big change in that even if Kerry wins,"
he said. "But Struck and Schroeder know they will have to do more
in future and are gradually preparing the public for that."
-
- - Additional reporting by Daniela Vates, Erik Kirschbaum
and Alexandra Hudson in Berlin, Mark John in Poiana Brasov, Romania,
Kerstin
Gehmlich in Paris and Robin Pomeroy in Rome
-
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