WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell sought clarification Wednesday on Germany's policy toward Iraq after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder slapped down hints from his defense minister that Berlin could send troops there.
Powell made a brief telephone call to German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to ask if there had been a change in Berlin's staunch opposition to joining the US-led coalition in Iraq, and was told that there had been no shift, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Powell "picked up the phone and called Foreign Minister Fischer this morning, as these reports were coming out, just to ask, 'Have you changed something?' and the foreign minister said: 'No, we haven't'," Boucher told reporters.
Earlier Wednesday, Schroeder said Germany had no plans to send military personnel to Iraq after the Financial Times newspaper quoted German Defense Minister Peter Struck as saying that Berlin, which fiercely opposed the US-led war, might deploy troops to Iraq if conditions change.
The chancellor said, however, that Germany was prepared to continue helping in the areas of reconstruction and training Iraqi soldiers and police outside Iraq.
The comments from Struck, who later insisted there was no difference between his position and Schroeder's, had sparked an outcry among some members of the chancellor's Social Democratic (SPD) party and the junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Greens party.
In addition, British defence minister Geoff Hoon welcomed Struck's comments. Britain is the main US ally in Iraq.
Boucher expressed surprise at "all the fuss" created by the Financial Times report and said Washington Schroeder to speak for German policy.
"If that's the position of the chancellor, that's the position of the German government," he said.