Berlin  - Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor, informed the current German government before his trip to Teheran to meet with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Berlin spokesman said Monday.

German Jewish leaders reacted with shock to the trip, because of the Iranian leader's previous denial of the Holocaust.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy spokesman, Thomas Steg, said there was no cause to criticize Schroeder. He said he assumed that Schroeder's remarks to Iranian leaders were in accord with German policy towards Iran.

Tehran  - Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met Saturday with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after delivering a speech in Tehran criticizing the Iranian leader's stance against the existence of Israel and his denial of the Holocaust.

The meeting took place behind closed doors in the president's offices. A brief statement afterwards said the two had exchanged ideas about regional and international issues. Ahmadinejad also urged global cooperation to solve the world's problems.

Berlin - Germany's Central Council of Jews criticized Saturday former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's plan to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has in the past denied that the Holocaust occurred.

In an interview with the Hanover daily Neue Presse, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews Stephan Kramer said, "Mr. Schroeder is greatly damaging the reputation of Germany and the German government."

Hanover, Germany  - On a visit to Iran, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was set to criticize Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial that the Holocaust happened, a German newspaper said Friday.

In a speech prepared for delivery to the Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Teheran, Schroeder said, "The Holocaust is a historical fact. It makes no sense to deny this unique crime which Hitler's Germany was responsible for."

Munich  - Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is heading for Iran and is scheduled to meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a German newpaper was set to report Friday.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Schroeder's Berlin office had confirmed he was on the trip, which would last four days.

During the private visit, he would also meet with Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, and a former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, who now chairs the Experts Assembly, the country's highest clerical body.

Berlin - Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has accused Georgia of provoking the recent hostilities with Russia by sending troops into South Ossetia and described President Mikheil Saakashvili as a "gambler," in an interview published Saturday.

"The moment that initiated the current hostilities was the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia," Schroeder told the German weekly Der Spiegel.

He declined to be drawn on whether Russia's response was disproportionate, saying that military conflicts developed their own dynamic.