The Germany Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, yesterday pledged support for the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, following a newspaper report that the Chancellor wants to sack him for disloyalty.
The conservative daily Die Welt claimed that Mr Schroder had vowed to "get rid" of Mr Scharping in the same way as he got rid of another rival, the former finance minister Mr Oskar Lafontaine.
Citing government sources, the paper said the Chancellor was enraged by Mr Scharping's public identification of himself as a possible successor to Mr Schroder.
The Defence Minister's outspoken opposition to planned cuts in the defence budget has also served to widen the rift between the two men.
The Chancellor is understood to have been especially annoyed by Mr Scharping's decision to appear at a rally last weekend of 5,000 soldiers protesting against the cuts.
The Defence Minister dismissed Die Welt's report as baseless and insisted that he remains a loyal member of Mr Schroder's cabinet.
"My position is clear and dependable. Part of this clarity and dependability is that I support the Chancellor. A newspaper like this will have no chance of driving a wedge between the Chancellor and his Defence Minister," he said.
A succession of electoral setbacks has weakened the Chancellor's position and provoked speculation about the future of his coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens. One alternative to the present government is a grand coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats and some members of the opposition have indicated that Mr Scharping might make a more acceptable leader of such a coalition than Mr Schroder.
A former chairman of the SPD, Mr Scharping stood unsuccessfully against the former Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, in 1994 and was ousted from the party leadership by Mr Lafontaine two years later. But he remains an influential figure within the party and enjoys good relations with back benchers on both right and left.
Mr Schroder yesterday defended his plan to cut DM30 billion (£12 billion) from public spending, claiming that it would help to secure low interest rates, boost growth and cut unemployment.
Speaking in a Bundestag debate on the cuts, the Chancellor acknowledged that the measures were unpopular and had contributed to his party's recent losses.
