BERLIN: For Germany, chairing a UN Security Council meeting for the first time should have been the crowning glory of its foreign policy, marking its full return to the international fold following World War Two.

Instead, Wednesday’s meeting, at which US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented phone transcripts and satellite photos to back up the US case for war against Iraq, risked completing Germany’s isolation.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s refusal to join any military action against Iraq or to back war in any new Security Council vote has robbed him of room for manoeuvre, divided Europe and raised doubts about Germany’s reliability, analysts say.

It could also cost him his job.

The US evidence against Iraq, which it accuses of concealing weapons of mass destruction, will not change Schroeder’s anti-war stance as that would wreck his credibility and trigger a revolt in his centre-left coalition, analysts say.

But refusing to budge will leave Germany isolated and confront Schroeder with the quandary of whether to fulfil NATO commitments linked to a war, such as letting Germans take part in patrolling Turkey’s skies in AWACS surveillance aircraft — a move that would anger many in his coalition.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who chaired Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, reiterated Germany’s peace message, calling on Baghdad to disarm and saying UN inspectors should get the time they need to complete their work in Iraq.

MOUNTING PRESSURE: Frank Umbach, security analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), said: “The German position is firm and won’t be affected by this evidence, but of course it will heighten the pressure.”