Germany lashes out at European Union stimulus plans

BRUSSELS: Germany's finance minister accused other European Union states of "tossing around billions" before a summit on Thursday, deepening a rift over Berlin's resistance to demands to spend more to revive the EU's economy.

Leaders of the 27-nation bloc want to agree at a two-day summit on a €200-billion, or $260-billion, stimulus package to wrench the bloc out of recession, but Germany - the largest economy in Europe - says it will not contribute more.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, the German finance minister Peer Steinbrück singled out Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain for abandoning fiscal prudence and switching to policies that would saddle a generation with debt.

"The speed at which proposals are put together under pressure that don't even pass an economic test is breathtaking and depressing," Steinbrück said in the interview, published on the magazine's Web site on Wednesday.

"The same people who would never touch deficit spending are now tossing around billions."

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