Chancellor Gerhard Schroder was too busy to commemorate the end of the first World War, but that did not mean the historic import of the armistice was lost on Germany, his spokesman, Mr Uwe Karsten Heye, said yesterday.
Mr Schroder's absence from ceremonies in France marking the 80th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war had raised eyebrows within Germany and abroad.
But Mr Heye said the chancellor's hectic schedule since taking over from Dr Helmut Kohl last month had prevented him from attending.
Mr Heye said Mr Schroder had made a major policy speech to parliament on Tuesday laying out his government's goals for the next four years.
Although the German media give much coverage to armistice commemorations elsewhere, there are no large ceremonies in Germany itself.
Mr Schroder's failure to lay a wreath at the tomb of Poland's Unknown Soldier during a one-day visit to Warsaw last week was also a question of time, the spokesman said.
France and Germany will stage a low-key ceremony to mark the armistice at a German military ceremony near Versailles on November 15th. A diplomatic flurry was sparked last month when a French official suggested Mr Schroder was staying away from armistice commemorations because he was of the view that Germany should now turn to the future rather than the past.
French officials have since said they were not treating his absence as a snub.