Germany: Media reports on Palestinian issue 'false'

Berlin:  The German government says reports are false that Germany proposed a resolution for the EU to recognise an independent Palestinian state within a year if no peace agreement is reached by then.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Stefan Bredohl said on Monday the report in Israeli daily Ma'ariv "is entirely unfounded."

Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert also rejects the newspaper's report that German State Secretary Eckhart von Klaeden, who is currently visiting Israel, delivered a message from the chancellor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the alleged initiative.

He says Merkel had written no such letter. Seibert says: "That report is simply false."