GERMANY: German foreign minister Joschka Fischer has admitted he personally made mistakes over new visa rules that may have opened German borders to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and traffickers of people.
Mr Fischer admitted not acting on warnings that the new rules had seen a huge rise in dubious tourist visa applications from Ukraine, Belarus and Albania.
"I've made mistakes ... I did not react with sufficient speed or firmness, or fully enough as the responsible minister," he said.
A cross-party parliamentary committee has begun investigating warnings he was given about the new rules that apparently loosened visa checks to an extent where Ukrainian and Albanian gangs brought prostitutes and illegal workers into the country posing as tourists.
Mr Fischer attacked the opposition for using the affair for electoral gains and for what he called prejudiced attacks on entire countries.
"As far as I'm concerned, they can demand my resignation, but they must stop stigmatising Ukrainians as criminals just for electoral gains," he said.
Mr Fischer received renewed backing from chancellor Gerhard Schröder, yesterday.
"All premature judgments of the foreign minister are wrong. The foreign minister will remain foreign minister," said Mr Schröder in a newspaper interview.
Dr Angela Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), said Mr Fischer's admission meant he "enabled black-market work, human trafficking and forced prostitution".
"There are many ministers who resigned on more minor grounds," she said.
The opposition hopes to drag out the parliamentary investigation for as long as possible for maximum political damage, even until May's crucial election in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia.
For the first time in six years Mr Fischer is no longer Germany's favourite politician.