Warsaw, Poland ? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested Wednesday that it was up to Germany to repair damage to American-German relations.

“We do have a saying in America: If you’re in a hole, stop digging,” Rumsfeld told a news conference at the close of two days of NATO meetings clouded by tensions between the two allies.

As if realizing he had just suggested the Germans were making the situation worse, Rumsfeld quickly added, “I’m not sure I should have said that. Let’s pretend I never said that.”

Bush administration officials were particularly angered by what they saw as an anti-American tone to the recent German parliamentary election campaign in which a government minister was reported to have likened President Bush’s tactics to those of Adolf Hitler.

Rumsfeld did not meet with Peter Struck, his German counterpart, during the Warsaw meetings. He told reporters that Struck skipped a briefing Tuesday at which Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin gave a detailed review of Iraq’s illicit weapons programs and its alleged ties to al-Qaida and other terror groups.

Other alliance officials said Rumsfeld left a Tuesday ministerial dinner before Struck spoke, but Rumsfeld denied he had intentionally snubbed the German.