24/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, Chancellor Schröder assured his Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, that he would not, this time, seek to block a possible warning (the "blauer Brief") to Germany for excessive deficit. Last February, the Ecofin Council had not endorsed the procedure that the Commission proposed to initiate toward Berlin. Mr Eichel recently admitted that the German deficit is expected to exceed 3% in 2002.