German spies in Iraq provided information for U.S. troops during the 2003 Iraq war, German media reported Thursday.

Two agents of the country's BND foreign intelligence agency stayed in Iraq throughout the war, providing U.S. spies with information, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and NDR television.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung quoted anonymous German security sources as saying the BND's cooperation with U.S. agents was definitely approved.

The sources said the approval was a political decision taken by then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government after talks between the foreign intelligence agency and the chancellery.

The German spies had been based in French diplomatic quarters as the German embassy in Iraq was closed on March 17, 2003, three days before the war began, said the newspaper, adding one of the tasks of them was to help U.S. troops to locate hospitals and embassies that should not be bombed.

NDR TV quoted a former U.S. military official as saying in a preview of a program to be shown later Thursday that the help of the German agents led to the attack by U.S. warplanes at least on one target.

"They gave us direct support. They gave us information for targeting," the U.S. military official told NDR.

He said the air raid on April 7, 2003 on a Baghdad suburb where former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was believed to to stay was carried out after a BND officer confirmed limousines were parked outside a building. The attack killed at least 12 civilians.

German opposition parties have demanded Thursday the government investigate into the allegation.

If it was true, it would be a great embarrassment to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had then overseen the security services as chief of staff to Schroeder.

NDR said Steinmeier declined to be interviewed for the program, adding the BND confirmed two agents remained in Iraq but denied they had been involved in helping to spot targets for U.S warplanes.

The report surfaced just before German Chancellor Angela Merkel starts to make her first official visit to the United States later Thursday to improve bilateral relations soured by Schroeder's opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Source: Xinhua