BERLIN, Jan 13: German intelligence agents gathered information in Iraq in 2003 and shared it with their US counterparts, a government spokesman said on Friday amid a furore over reports that Berlin secretly helped the war effort.

“There was a decision from the German government that two agents would remain in Iraq to gather information. There was a regular exchange of information with the US side,” foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said.

Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said that the aim of the exchange was to prevent attacks on civilian targets and save lives.

“Agents of the BND (the German intelligence services abroad) passed on information to prevent civilian institutions like schools, hospitals and embassies mistakenly becoming the target of attacks,” he said.

“This information was passed on between friendly nations in a bid to achieve this aim,” Steg added.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday at first denied then confirmed that the BND had kept agents in Iraq after the story was broken by ARD public television and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The newspaper reported that the secret services’ aim was to prevent the bombing of civilian targets.

But ARD quoted a former US defence department official as saying that the German secret services also provided “direct help” in identifying targets that should be bombed.

The reports have provoked a storm as the government of former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had staunchly opposed the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein and refused to contribute troops to the war.

“Did Germany take part in the war in Iraq?” Der Tagesspiegel newspaper asked in a FrontPage headline.

Steinmeier, who was minister in the chancellery for Schroeder in 2003, on Friday dismissed the idea that Germany played a double role in the war.

“It is absurd to say that the government officially opposed the war in Iraq but covertly supported it. I will not allow history to be rewritten,” he said.

Outraged opposition parties have demanded an enquiry, and the government confirmed on Friday that the parliamentary committee on intelligence was meeting to discuss the matter.—AFP