WASHINGTON, Sept 23: Deeply angered by perceived anti-US campaign tactics used by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the United States on Monday snubbed his election win, saying he would have a lot of work to heal poisoned ties.

Schroeder’s strong opposition to military action against Iraq and an alleged comment by the former justice minister comparing President George W. Bush’s tactics to those of Adolf Hitler caused deep offense at the White House.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer ignored reporters’ questions on whether Bush had contacted Schroeder after the chancellor’s win and officials said the president had no plans to congratulate him.

Although Bush routinely offers congratulations by telephone, Fleischer curtly said the US State Department was the appropriate agency from which to seek reaction.

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher offered what one senior official described as a “very terse” two-sentence reaction that did not mention Schroeder by name, the diplomatic equivalent of a slap in the face.

A senior official traveling with Bush on a trip to New Jersey said it would take a considerable effort by Schroeder’s government “to improve relations, which have been damaged between the governments.”

“Chairman Schroeder and his government have a lot of work to repair the damage that he did by his excesses during the campaign,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Boucher refused to use Schroeder’s name in his comments which merely welcomed the fact that Germany had held a democratic election.

“Voters of Germany have spoken clearly through a democratic process and we look forward to working with the German government on issues of common interest,” Boucher told reporters.

He acknowledged that “there had been some issues” about Schroeder’s campaign that had been “particularly disturbing” but declined to elaborate on them.

Boucher did say that German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had called Secretary of State Colin Powell earlier Monday to speak about the issues and other matters.

A senior department official said that Fischer had called Powell “to start to attempt to address those issues.”

In sharp contrast to his comments on the German election, Boucher gave an enthusiastic reception to weekend polls in Slovakia.

“We commend the voters in Slovakia for exercising their democratic right and responsibility to vote in a free and fair election,” he said, calling the high voter turnout there a “sign of the vibrancy of the democratic system in the Slovak Republic.”

Washington has been seething for days about Schroeder’s campaign with the first blistering criticism coming last week.—AFP