BERLIN, Feb 22: Europe must debate with the United States about how to deal with Iraq, Iran and North Korea, which President George Bush has said constitute an “axis of evil”, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Friday.

“There is today a lively transatlantic debate,” Fischer told parliament. “We must continue this important and necessary debate and we must listen to each other,” he said.

The minister, who was replying to opposition criticism of his response to Bush’s State of the Union speech of January 29, expressed the German government’s “great concern” about what he called the US administration’s “tough talk”.

He said this concern was shared “by all other European Union governments and in the Far East” where “questions were asked” of Bush during his tour of the region.

“The federal government has not been informed of any plans for military action (against Iraq),” Fischer said. “But we note with great concern that the situation seems to be evolving in a definite direction.”

The German minister implicitly queried the appropriateness of Bush’s characterisation of the three countries.

He noted that the government of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was reform-oriented, and also that South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung’s policy toward North Korea has had some success.

Regarding Iraq, Fischer said that only complete compliance by Saddam Hussein’s government with UN resolutions and its allowing of UN arms inspectors back into the country could lead to a de-escalation of tensions.

The German minister said that US intervention had been decisive in defeating Germany’s Nazi regime where other efforts had failed, but he underlined that this intervention had been successful because it did not rely solely on military means.—AFP