French minister: Germany influenced by Nazism

A row has broken out in France over comments by the country's Interior Minister, Jean-Pierre Chevenement, in which he said Germany still hadn't recovered from its Nazi past.

Mr Chevenement said in a television interview that a recent speech by the German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, showed Germany was dreaming of an empire and seeking to impose its political model on the rest of Europe.

Mr Fischer had said in his speech he foresaw a federal European state governed by its own institutions.

A number of French politicians have condemned Mr Chevenement's remarks, with the former President, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, calling them intolerable and damaging.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service