Berlusconi, Schroeder say relations fine

VERONA, Italy -- Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder may not be the warmest of pals, but the two leaders held a cordial make-up session Saturday, burying an embarrassing summer row in Verona.

Berlusconi and Schroeder decided that two great European nations could not be seen squabbling. The plan had been to meet Friday at a performance of the opera "Carmen," but Berlusconi pulled out at the last minute -- a fact neither leader dwelled on Saturday.

"I don't think you can talk about relations improving because they never worsened," Berlusconi told reporters after their meeting, sparking a chuckle from Schroeder.

"The relationship was always excellent," Berlusconi said.

Schroeder agreed, adding: "There were some irritations, but this didn't affect the personal or political relationship."

The spat began in July, when Berlusconi made an ill-calculated "joke" about Nazis. This sparked tensions that led Schroeder to cancel his Italian summer vacation.

In the following weeks, both countries sought to calm matters, insisting that Italy and Germany were friends. Then came the leaders' one-hour talk Saturday, touching on the European Union as well as international matters.

Berlusconi and Schroeder did indicate one remaining difference, regarding the planned constitution for the EU, which is to expand next year from 15 to 25 countries.

Both sides hope the document will be ratified soon, but Berlusconi said he would accept as many as three amendments to the draft. Schroeder argued that the text should not be changed at all.

But overall, Italian-German links were emphasized Saturday. In a separate meeting, Italy Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu met in Sardinia with his counterpart Otto Schily. The two agreed on a program to deal with illegal immigration, Italian news reports said.

The conservative Berlusconi said he was sorry not to have made it to the opera in Verona's ancient Roman forum, the Arena. The premier said he dropped out due to fears that leftist demonstrators would protest his presence and ruin the event for everyone.

This left Schroeder and European Commission President Romano Prodi -- a Berlusconi foe who had invited the German leader to Verona -- to eat dinner and watch the show on their own.

In the end, the some 100 people who turned up for a protest were kept a great distance from the Arena, watched by a few dozen police.

The Italian-German squabble started one day after Italy took over the six-month European Union presidency in July.

Berlusconi was making an introductory appearance at the European Parliament when German lawmaker Martin Schulz spoke out against a recent law passed in Italy that froze the premier's trial on corruption charges. Berlusconi snapped back with a typically off-the-cuff comment he later described as a joke.

"Mr. Schulz, I know there is a producer in Italy who is making a film on the Nazi concentration camps," Berlusconi said. "I will suggest you for the role of 'kapo'." That is a German word used in Nazi concentration camps for privileged prisoners who guarded other inmates.

Germans were disturbed by the quip about their darkest period, but Berlusconi refused to apologize.

Then, an Italian tourism official worsened matters, writing in a newspaper article that Germany was an "arrogant" country and its citizens "stereotyped blondes." This led Schroeder to cancel his vacation in Italy.

Prodi, who has been mentioned as a center-left candidate against Berlusconi in 2006 elections, stressed the need for both sides to put the spat behind them, according to an interview appearing today in the German daily newspaper Tagesspiegel.

"The six founding members of the EU have, alongside their great political responsibility, a task that I would call almost moral," he said. "We need stability in our relationships. Europe needs a feeling of responsibility."