German minister denies plagiarism on PhD thesis

Germany's defence minister has denied newspaper allegations that he committed plagiarism in his PhD thesis.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg got top marks for his 2006 law dissertation from the University of Bayreuth.

But the Suddeutche Zeitung says several long passages in the thesis seem to have just been lifted from other people's work.

The telegenic minister has dismissed the accusations as "absurd".

The popular 39-year-old has been a lawmaker in Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc since 2002 and is considered a possible future candidate for the top post.

His thesis - titled "Constitution and Constitutional Treaty: Constitutional Developments in the US and EU" - was completed in 2006.

Word for word

The Suddeutche Zeitung claims Mr zu Guttenberg had copied, word for word, one passage from a newspaper article and another from a public lecture without attributing them, while other texts were incorrectly attributed.

While vehemently rejecting the accusations of plagiarism, the minister told reporters he was happy to check to see whether there had been any omissions or errors in the 1,200 footnotes.

The paper suggests he was under stress to finish his dissertation while working as a member of parliament.

"Should someone come up with the idea that a member of my office may have collaborated on the academic preparation of my dissertation, I would have to answer - it's simply not true," said Mr Guttenberg. "The writing of the dissertation was my own work."

The university said it would investigate the allegations.

Mrs Merkel's spokesman said the chancellor was taking an interest in the case but would wait for a decision from university authorities before passing judgment.

The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the defence minister is is feeling the political heat at the moment.

He has been criticised over a scandal on a military training ship which led to a mutiny - bringing the charge from opponents that his defence ministry is out of control.

On top of that, says our correspondent, a soldier shot in Afghanistan was initially said by the ministry to have shot himself, but turned out to have been shot by another soldier