Everyone's looking in the air and asking, is he falling or not?

SPD politician Wolfgang Clement

"I am calm, very serious and certain that I will continue in office," the minister said as he arrived at a meeting of deputies from his Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Thursday.

But, "He's got a screw loose!" was the comment by Wolfgang Clement, Prime Minister of Nordrhein-Westphalen and an influential Social Democrat politician.

Mr Clement later retracted the comment, but not before thousands had read it splashed across the front of the weekly Stern magazine. Inside, Mr Clement goes on to say: "Everyone's looking in the air and asking, is he falling or not?"

'Half-hearted' support

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is standing by his minister.

It's always the same story: the closer a resignation comes, the more denials accompany the potential resigner

Spiegel Online

But he was forced to step in late on Wednesday to deny reports that Mr Scharping's resignation was imminent, after German media reported that the minister would step down before the weekend.

This has failed to convince the papers who claim the SPD's support for Mr Scharping is becoming increasingly half-hearted.

"It's always the same story: the closer a resignation comes, the more denials accompany the potential resigner," Spiegel Online comments.

Scharping and girlfriend Countess Kristina Pilati

On Thursday, the mass-circulation Bild Zeitung published new allegations about Mr Scharping's alleged abuse of airforce flights.

The tabloid says that since the beginning of Mr Scharping's relationship with his girlfriend, Countess Kristina Pilati, he had used Luftwaffe aircraft for 40 domestic flights to Frankfurt - the countess's home town.

Citing the example of a trip on 9th May - Ms Pilati's birthday - the paper says on Mr Scharping's return journey he was the only passenger in an army Challenger plane.

"Will the birthday trip cost the minister his job?" asks the tabloid.

Frequent flyer

Mr Scharping's latest troubles began when Germany's Bunte magazine printed pictures of him with Ms Pilati in a swimming pool in Majorca, just as the government scrambled to assemble a parliamentary majority for German participation in Nato's operation to disarm Albanian rebels in Macedonia.

Chancellor Schroeder can ill afford to lose another minister

Mr Scharping has said he regrets the coincidence of the pool photos and the Macedonia deployment and insists that his use of military planes falls within government guidelines and that he can account for all the trips he made.

But his performance in front of a special session of parliament on Monday will be critical to his survival.

If he does resign, he will be the eighth minister from Chancellor Schroeder's cabinet to step down in this parliament.

The BBC's Berlin correspondent, Rob Broomby, says that as vice-president of the SPD and once a candidate for chancellor himself, Mr Scharping is one minister Mr Schroeder cannot afford to lose.