Jun 12, 2006, 13:40 GMT
Berlin - It remains unclear whether Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to come to Germany for football's World Cup, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday.
'We don't know of any concrete plans,' said Steinmeier in an interview with the magazine Super Illu.
Steinmeier underlined that Ahmadinejad's comments denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel were 'scandalous, irresponsible and unacceptable'.
Despite these remarks, German officials say they cannot keep out the Iranian leader since, as head of state, he does not need a visa to enter the country.
Charlotte Knobloch, the leader of Germany's Central Council of Jews, called at the weekend for Ahmadinejad to be banned from Germany.
Last week, she termed Ahmadinejad 'a second Hitler.'
Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein, in a speech at a protest in Munich on Sunday aimed at Iran's policies, slammed Ahmadinejad as 'a criminal', according to the newspaper Die Welt.
But given the poor showing of Iran's team which was defeated Sunday by Mexico 3-1, there may end up being no reason for the Iranian leader to visit the World Cup.
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