Germany denied suggestions on Friday that Britain, France and the European Commission had snubbed Chancellor Angela Merkel by holding a high-profile meeting on the global economy next week without her.
Merkel, leader of Europe's biggest economy, is under fire from some EU nations and domestic lawmakers for what they say is a dithering and isolationist approach to the financial crisis.
In particular, they are angry over her reluctance to embrace EU proposals to boost the 27-member bloc's flagging economy, although her coalition has pushed through a national stimulus package it says is worth 31 billion euros ($39.34 billion).
London announced on Thursday that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso would meet European business leaders on Monday to discuss the economy.
"The meeting is not directed against Germany or the Chancellor," said government spokesman Thomas Steg when repeatedly pressed on the issue at a news conference.
"We were informed about the meeting so we were not surprised when reports came out about it," he said.
But the talks on a coordinated response to the economic situation risk deeping the divisions over the European Commission's 200 billion euros spending plan to ease the effects of the recession which Merkel has reservations about.
EU leaders will discuss the plan at a Dec. 11-12 summit.
A spokesman for Brown also denied Germany might see Monday's meeting as an attempt to "stitch up a deal" before the summit.
"I don't think that is the intention of the meeting at all. We are obviously in very close contact with the Germans, the prime minister speaks regularly to Chancellor Merkel," he said.
"MADAME NO"
However, German newspapers jumped on Merkel's absence from the meeting and said she was under growing pressure from Britain, France, Italy, Spain and the European Commission to do more to tackle the effects of the global financial crisis.
"Crisis meeting without Merkel," read a headline in Friday's Rheinische Post newspaper and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung splashed the same story on its front page.
Merkel is at risk of losing her reputation as a big hitter on the European stage. After winning praise for helping broker tough negotiations on an EU reform treaty and a Group of Eight climate change deal, she now faces direct criticism.
Sarkozy has attacked Merkel, saying last week: "While France is working, Germany is thinking."
Steg also had to defend Merkel from speculation she is known in Brussels as "Madame No" and denied Germany was isolated.
"'Madame No' implies a destructive, blocking attitude but that is exactly what we are not doing. We are devising things and giving direction to others," said Steg.
"We do not feel alone.. nothing in the EU can be agreed without Germany," he said, adding there was barely a country that had agreed as big a stimulus package as Germany.
But Merkel herself has emphasised her different approach. This week she told her conservative party she would not be drawn into a "pointless competition" to spend billions of euros.
She is resisting calls for tax cuts, at least until after September's election, and many conservatives oppose the idea of issuing spending vouchers to boost domestic consumption.
