Germany rejects parts of Iranian letter on Israel

BERLIN, July 21 (Reuters) Germany rejects parts of a letter sent this week from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that call into question Israel's to exist, a government spokesman said today.

Speaking to reporters, German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm was confirming a Reuters report that said the letter to Merkel did not mention Tehran's nuclear standoff with the West.

''The letter doesn't include any mention of Iran's nuclear programme,'' Wilhelm said, adding that it also did not mention the fighting in Lebanon and Israel.

''It includes many statements that are unacceptable to us, especially regarding Israel, the right of Israel to exist and the Holocaust ... It is fully unacceptable for us when these are called into question.'' Berlin's relations with Ahmadinejad have been complicated by his repeated denial of the Holocaust, in which Germany's Nazi regime killed six million Jews, and his call for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany punishable with up to five years in prison.

REUTERS DKA BD1601