By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's interior minister, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, denied on Wednesday that he lied to parliament about German intelligence cooperation with U.S. spy agencies, but remained under fire over a string of blunders.
The left-wing opposition and the media have assailed Thomas de Maiziere over his record as chief of staff in 2005-09 and whether he knew the German foreign intelligence agency (BND) was helping U.S. agencies spy on European firms such as defence manufacturer Airbus.
They have also accused him of bungling his last job as defence minister by failing to react to reports that the German army's G36 rifles do not shoot straight. He has remained silent as Ursula von der Leyen, a rival who is now defence minister, rubbed the salt in his wounds.
Once tipped as a possible successor to Merkel, de Maiziere remains a pillar of her right-left grand coalition government, with strong appeal on the right wing of her Christian Democratic (CDU) party.
"I follow the rules," de Maiziere said in a statement on Wednesday after Bild newspaper published a story accusing him of lying to parliament and the public.
"That's my understanding about the treatment of top-secret information. It's in my own interest to clear these accusations up. They are not true and the documents would show that."
The Left party called for de Maiziere to resign.
SPYING ON THE FRENCH
In another potentially embarrassing development for Merkel's government, German media reported that BND officials had helped U.S. agencies spy on the French president's office, the foreign ministry in Paris and the European Commission.
"The core of it is political espionage on our European neighbours and on EU institutions," a person with knowledge of the spy programme was quoted as saying by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
A German government spokesman and the BND agency did not immediately comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.
In Paris, a French foreign ministry spokesman said, "We are in close contact with our German partners, who have publicly said they would proceed with an internal clarification on these elements reported by the press".
Merkel's chancellery has said that since 2008 it had been aware of the U.S. National Security Agency's interest in spying on European defence companies, even though parliament was told last August it had no information about any such espionage.
Analysts say that Merkel remains loyal to de Maiziere, who has long been a punching bag for the opposition. His cousin Lothar de Maiziere was old East Germany's last prime minister and made Merkel's career possible as his spokeswoman.
"Merkel won't let him be sacrificed," said Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. "She's known him from the start of her career and they've always been fiercely loyal to each other. She'd be exposed if he had to go."
Several chancellery sources said Merkel's popularity makes it hard for the opposition - or even the Social Democrat coalition partners - to attack her without harming themselves.
"So if you can't hit the chancellor, it's understandable that they try to strike out at the some of the stronger people around her," said one government source.
(Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber, Thomas Seythal, Andreas Rinke in Berlin and Michel Rose in Paris; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Larry King and Jonathan Oatis)
