Memo leak embarrasses Germany

Fischer says the leak is "extremely annoying"

BERLIN, Germany -- A leaked high-level memo has angered and embarrassed the German government, which has launched an inquiry to find the culprit.

The sensitive memo, summarising talks between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and U.S. President George W. Bush during a summit meeting in Washington in March, has found its way into the German media.

Opposition politicians want an inquiry mounted into the affair.

Press reports say the memo reveals that Schroeder's foreign affairs adviser Michael Steiner told Bush of an admission by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that he was behind the bombings of a Berlin discotheque and a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the 1980s.

It is also said to contain unflattering comments by the German and U.S. leaders about other world figures, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

On Wednesday, the German parliament's foreign affairs committee quizzed Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Steiner about the leak.

While an embarrassed Fischer has called the affair "extremely annoying," observers say the diplomatic fall-out is more serious.

Russian President Vladimir Putin -- a subject of the Bush-Schroeder talks -- says the memo's publication is a "provocation," while Jordan, Libya and the U.S. have expressed concern over the document's content.

Both Germany and Libya say Gadhafi did not admit to being involved with the attacks.

"There has not been such an embarrassment in German foreign policy for decades," Theo Waigel, the former finance minister and senior member of the conservative Christian Social Union.

Fischer insisted that media accounts of the contents of the 10-page memo had not harmed German diplomacy.

But he acknowledged: "The entire business is more than annoying."

After the hearing, Fischer said it had dealt with all important questions arising from the affair but had not uncovered who had leaked the memo, and added that no one would be sacked over the affair.

"Today's session dealt exhaustively with all the questions," Fischer said. "I would just like to know one thing: Who was it?"

According to press reports, part of the classified memo reported that Gadhafi had apparently admitted to involvement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the 1986 attack on the La Belle nightclub, in West Berlin, used by U.S. servicemen.

Gadhafi "admitted Libya had taken part in terrorist activities (La Belle, Lockerbie)," the cable read, apparently quoting Steiner.

"He declared that he has renounced terrorism and asked for a chance to prove Libya's new stance," it said.

The German government acknowledges that Steiner and Gadhafi had a secret meeting on March 17 at which the Libyan leader distanced himself from terrorism, but it says individual cases were not discussed.

The La Belle bombing killed three people and wounded two hundred.

Five people, including a Libyan, are now on trial and lawyers have asked Steiner to give evidence on June 5.

But on Wednesday Fischer reiterated the government's position that Gadhafi had made no such admission.

"It is completely clear that there has been absolutely no explanation on the side of Gadhafi which is legally relevant or relevant to evidence," he said, adding Gadhafi had also made no general admission of involvement in state-sponsored terrorism.