Kohl says Thatcher enraged by German unity

BERLIN, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl accuses Margaret Thatcher of trying to scuttle German reunification.

In the latest installment of his memoirs, Kohl describes the former British prime minister as indulging in hysterical rage and stamping her feet at a dinner party in Paris with Kohl and French President Francois Mitterand.

Thatcher, like many Europeans with memories of World War II, feared a reunited Germany.

"I told her that not even Margaret Thatcher could stop a people from deciding its own fate," Kohl said in his book. "This made her beside herself with rage and said: 'That's how you see it! That's how you see it!'"

Kohl's "Recollections" hits the bookstores in Germany this week. The volume covers the period at the end of the Cold War.

Kohl, who led West Germany for 16 years, and Thatcher, were the most powerful Europeans of their time. Kohl has previously called the relationship "difficult," a word he has now amended to "poor."