BANGEMANN DENIES NEWSPAPER INTERVIEW ON SUBSIDIES

  The West German Economics Minister today
  denied giving a newspaper interview which quoted him as saying
  the state could not continue to pour money into the country's
  ailing steel and coal industries.
      Economics Ministry spokesman Dieter Vogel said in a
  statement Bangemann had contacted him from New Zealand, where
  he is attending a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT)
  ministerial meeting, to deny giving the interview to the
  conservative daily Die Welt. The paper quoted Bangemann as
  saying that continued subsidies would endanger other parts of
  the German economy by making them uncompetitive.
      Vogel said Bangemann had pledged that everything possible
  would be done to minimize the effects of reduced coal and steel
  production on the workforces and regions concerned.
      Die Welt said the interview with Bangemann had taken place
  at a meeting of his Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Darmstadt
  last Friday, adding that it had a tape recording of his
  comments which it would publish tomorrow.
  

