News In Brief

Kohl Dismisses Soviet charges he's trying to unify Germanys

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, in an interview published Sunday, rejected Soviet charges that his government was trying to reunite West and East Germany and absorb lost territories to regain the Third Reich's 1937 borders.

He also said he was sure East German leader Erich Honecker would go ahead with a visit to West Germany next month despite Soviet hostility to the trip.

Mr. Kohl's comments coincided with the 14th anniversary of a West German-Soviet treaty declaring Europe's frontiers inviolable. It was his first direct response to Soviet allegations that his right-of-center coalition government is pursuing a revanchist foreign policy.

The interview appeared in Bild, a right-wing daily newspaper published by Axel Springer.

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