Germany rejects Greek demand for reparations

Germany has dismissed Greek demands to pay World War Two reparations after leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused Berlin of using legal tricks to avoid paying compensation for the Nazi occupation of his country.

Resurrecting the highly-charged issue has done little to soothe already strained German-Greek relations as Athens strives to persuade eurozone partners to renegotiate terms of a €240bn bailout.

Compounding tensions, a Greek minister said he was ready to endorse a court ruling allowing Athens to seize German state-owned property to compensate victims of a World War Two Nazi massacre of 218 Greek civilians in the village of Distomo.