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Blair and Schroeder say ties not harmed by BMW row

OXFORD: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Saturday BMW's sudden decision to sell its British car subsidiary Rover had not caused friction with the German government.

Speaking after an Anglo-German conference in Oxford with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Blair said relations between London and Berlin were "excellent".

"I don't believe British-German relations have ever been warmer than they are today," Blair told a news conference as Schroeder stood by his side.

Schroeder also praised British-German ties and criticised BMW for what he described as a lack of transparency in its dealings with Rover.

"I would have wished for a more open information policy (by BMW) and that should now be made good," Schroeder said.

The British government was furious last week when BMW abruptly announced it was selling most of Rover to other companies, putting thousands of British jobs in jeopardy, without telling the government anything.

Blair acknowledged industrial issues such as the BMW decison could cause real pain for working people and their families but insisted: "There are no problems in relations between our two governments."

"It is far more sensible that we really don't play politics with this issue," Blair added.

Schroeder said he agreed governments should not intervene in "economically necessary decisions" and instead they should concentrate on dealing with the consequencesa.

While the two leaders hailed their relations, they both took aim at what they believed was some unbalanced British media reporting of Germany and Europe.

Schroeder said he wished the British press would report about the Germany that exists today rather than a Germany that no longer exists.

There has been a mini-uproar in some Britsh newsapers since the country's ambassador to Germany, Sir Paul Lever, complained last week that media coverage of Germany was dominated by World War Two "vocabulary".

"I sometimes get the impression that the reporting here in Britain about Germany suffers from a time warp," Schroeder said.

Blair also took up the issue saying that the most important thing for Britons was that they received "fair and balanced reporting of Europe".

He accepted there would be reporting of conflicting views on European issues but called on the media to tell the truth.

Both Blair and Schroeder said last week's Lisbon EU summit had taken a major step towards putting into reality their joint vision of a so-called political third way of a new econmy capable of delivering social justice in a more modern way.-Reuters