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ReutersBERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's foreign minister has rejected plans by Chancellor Angela Merkel's party to set up a U.S.-style National Security Council to oversee foreign policy, saying the body proved a failure in the run-up to the Iraq war.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a speech in Berlin on Monday that the U.S. NSC, which was run by Condoleezza Rice when the United States launched its invasion of Iraq, had "suppressed all counterarguments" to the war in 2003.
"This cannot be the model for us," said Steinmeier, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats, who under former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder staunchly opposed the Iraq war.
Leading members of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), who rule in an uneasy coalition with the SPD, have proposed introducing a German version of the NSC, arguing a new body is needed to analyze, coordinate and set policy in the face of evolving threats.
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