Schroeder told a brief news conference after a phone call with Berlusconi later Thursday that he had accepted his "regret" for comparing a German politician to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

"He expressed regret for the choice of this expression and comparison. I explained to him that as far as I am concerned this ends the affair," Schroeder said.

Schroeder had earlier demanded a full apology from Berlusconi's "totally unacceptable" Nazi jibe to a German member of the European Parliament made in the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Berlusconi caused an uproar Wednesday when he compared German deputy Martin Schulz to a Nazi concentration camp guard in his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on his plans for Italy's six-month presidency of the European Union (EU).

The Nazi era is still a highly sensitive topic for Germans nearly 60 years after the end of World War II, and any remarks linking to the Nazi's crimes always cause an outrage in Germany.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2003)