Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder tried to calm anger this evening over a US jibe that Germany and France belonged to "old Europe" for their aversion to a war with Iraq, saying the two continents were built on the same values.
Mr Schroeder declined to respond directly to US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of France and Germany as isolated on Iraq in a continent whose centre of gravity was shifting eastwards to embrace more US allies.
"I want to keep the debate factual and I don't want to take part in polemic disputes," Mr Schroeder said in an interview with RTL television this evening.
"Germany and France are pursuing common values which...go back to the values of the French Revolution and the values of the European Enlightenment.
They are values incidentally which also define the American Constitution," he said. "I don't think we can be criticised for pursuing these values in international politics," he said. "This difference of opinion that we are having at the moment should not destroy the German-American relationship."
Mr Rumsfeld's comments deepened divisions in the transatlantic alliance and prompted an outpouring of criticism from politicians and commentators in both Berlin and Paris.
Mr Michael Mueller, a deputy parliamentary leader of Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats and a leading left-winger, lashed out at Mr Rumsfeld, saying the US could not cope with criticism: "Young America is practicing the old inquisition."
"This is about control of the most oil-rich region in the world. The US is addicted to cheap oil as a junkie is to the needle," he said in a statement.