You have to ask whether a president who does not have [national] pride can adequately represent the 80 million citizens of his country

Thomas Goppel of the Christian Social Union

In an interview with the TV news channel N24, Mr Rau said one could be "pleased" or "grateful" to be a German, but he added: "In my view, one cannot be proud of this. One is proud of what one has achieved oneself."

The president came under attack from the general secretary of the right-wing Christian Social Union, Thomas Goppel, who questioned his performance as president and his patriotism.

"You have to ask whether a president who does not have this pride can adequately represent the 80 million citizens of his country," Mr Goppel said in the newspaper Bild.

"Skinhead mentality"

Mr Rau's statement also prompted criticism from the general secretary of the right-of-centre opposition Christian Democrats, Laurenz Meyer, who said he is proud to be German.

Environment Minister Trittin of the Greens then in his turn attacked Meyer, saying that this was the kind of thing skinheads have printed on their teeshirts.

Trittin: Withdrew remarks

"Whoever flirts with a principle like this against the background of record numbers of racist attacks must expect tough criticism," Mr Trittin told the paper Sonntag Aktuell.

Earlier, Mr Trittin had accused Mr Meyer of not only having "the mentality, but also the appearance of a skinhead", but later withdrew the remark, made in a radio interview.

I am proud of the achievements of people and of the democratic culture

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

The Christian Democrats are now calling for Mr Trittin's resignation. The party has also given notice that the issue will be a major topic in the local elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Wuerttemberg later this month.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder added his voice to the debate on Monday in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, saying he was "proud" of Germany.

"I am proud of the achievements of people and of the democratic culture," he said.

"And in this sense I'm a German patriot who is proud of his country."

The row has echoes of the debate sparked last October when the Christian Democrat parliamentary floor leader Friedrich Merz said that foreigners in Germany should be expected to show allegiance to the "dominant culture", the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily said.

"Without intending to, Merz provoked a kind of phantom pain: he reminded the Germans, caught between love of homeland and yearning for Europe, of their amputated leg: national identity," the paper says.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.