July 19, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1423

BERLIN, July 18: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder fired his scandal-prone Defence Minister Rudolph Scharping on Thursday following election-year allegations he accepted fees from a public relations firm.

“I will ask the president to relieve Scharping of his duties as defence minister,” Schroeder said at a press conference after a flurry of speculation about his future.

Schroeder named Peter Struck, the parliamentary leader of his Social Democrats (SDP), to replace him.

The dramatic developments unfolded just two months ahead of elections in the key NATO state, with Schroeder facing a strong challenge from the conservative Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber.

Scharping, 54 has been defence minister since Schroeder’s government took office in October 1998 but the chancellor has been under pressure to remove him on several occasions over the last 18 months.

Earlier, Scharping had brushed aside revelations in the Die Welt newspaper that he was to be sacked over the alleged improprieties.

“The arbitrary, trumped-up claims of a magazine cannot be the basis for a resignation,” Scharping told reporters.

Scharping, who suffered a humilitating blow in 1994 when he unsuccessfully challenged Helmut Kohl for the chancellorship in 1994, is the eighth minister to leave Schroeder’s SDP-led coalition government since taking office in 1998.

Party sources told Die Welt’s Friday edition that the chancellor “gave the final word” at a secret meeting on Wednesday to get rid of Scharping, who has been plagued by bad press and alleged gaffes for more than a year.—AFP