German Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, said yesterday he wanted to give up his unpopular post next year, after nine years in office. Mr Waigel, who often bears the brunt of criticism for unpopular cutbacks, told Bavarian Television he was giving his job after elections next year. In a brief interview broadcast late on Tuesday, Mr Waigel said: "Nine years as Finance Minister is enough.

"That is more than one could expect of me. I have done my duty and am still doing it." A Finance Ministry spokesman said Mr Waigel had not decided what he would do after the election. The statement is certain to fuel speculation Mr Waigel could be needling the Chancellor, Dr Kohl, to make him Foreign Minister.

Asked whether he could imagine performing another function in the cabinet, Mr Waigel said: "I certainly believe I can perform any other post. But I am not obsessed with ambition."

The German government said yesterday that the European Union's statistics agency supported its plans to strike billions of D-marks in hospital debt from the budget, to help Bonn qualify for monetary union. A Finance Ministry spokesman said Eurostat had given the all-clear to factor out DM5 billion (£1.86 billion) in debt owed by public hospitals, helping Bonn to cut its budget deficit this year to the limit set down by the Maastricht treaty.

Independent economists said it did not amount to a "fudge" of the Maastricht criteria, as German statisticians had simply lagged other EU countries in scratching debts owed by hospitals which get over half of their income from privately insured patients.