BERLIN, Sept 4: The US ambassador in Berlin, Daniel Coats, warned on Wednesday that Germany’s opposition to plans for an attack on Iraq was undermining relations between their two countries.

In blunt language, he said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s “absolute opposition” to a possible attack on Iraq was “isolating Germany from mainstream opinion, and even within the European Union”.

Schroeder stepped up his opposition on Wednesday to a US strike against Iraq, deepening a diplomatic rift between Berlin and Washington over how to deal with Saddam Hussein.

He said that as far as Germany was concerned, there was no evidence of any increased threat from Iraq, and that none of those supporting military action seemed to have thought through the consequences for the Middle East.

The chancellor clearly distanced himself from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington’s strongest ally in Europe, who on Tuesday echoed US President George W. Bush’s call for “regime change” in Baghdad.

Blair has also pledged to publish a dossier proving that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction.

Schroeder reiterated that “under my leadership, Germany will not take part in an intervention in Iraq,” a stance he said was understood and supported by a number of other European leaders.

He told a news conference that as information available to his government did not show any new threat from Iraq, “we have no reason to divert from our well-founded position”.

The chancellor did not, however, rule out giving US forces overflight rights and use of their bases in Germany in the event of an attack.

An attack on Iraq “isn’t about a response to Sept 11,” but “a completely different matter,” Schroeder said.

First, it could “unsettle” the US-led coalition built up after the suicide hijackings in New York and Washington.

Secondly, the “war against terror was not finished.

Finally, none of those who supported military action had yet come up with a plan for the post-war period, such as what the “new political order” in the Middle East would look like.

In comments to the Rheinische Post daily, the chancellor also said he would not agree to German forces taking part in an attack on Iraq even if there were a new UN mandate.

“Whoever intervenes there must know that there will need to be a whole new political order in the Middle East, with all that that implies. And I see no plan for that.”

Attacking Iraq could lead to a regional “conflagration,” he warned.

Schroeder has emerged as one of the leading European opponents to war over Iraq without a new UN mandate, a stance which plays well domestically as he campaigns for Sept 22 elections.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned that military intervention would pose “the greatest risk since the Vietnam War.”

“If one wants to remove Saddam Hussein from the country, one would have to occupy it for a long period,” he told the Mittelbayerische Zeitung daily.

In an interview with the German news agency DPA, ambassador Coats said the United States had been hoping for more support from its key ally.

While Germany’s position would not ruin bilateral ties, it had put “doubt” over their closeness, he added, according to the DPA translation.

The envoy said it was not enough to argue against attacking Iraq. “What we have not heard are constructive solutions.”

Nor, given the threat from Iraqi weapons, was it “clever politics simply to say, we’ve tried but Saddam has won.”

To which Schroeder replied that friendship “does not mean always doing what the other person says. That would be subjugation, and I think it is wrong.” —AFP