Ex-German minister admits accepting bribe

Pfahls, who served as state secretary for defence from 1987 to 1992 under then chancellor Helmut Kohl, surprised the court in the southern city of Augsburg by acknowledging that he accepted about one million euros (1.2 million dollars) for facilitating the sale of armoured vehicles to the United States.

The 62-year-old said the money was transferred to a Swiss bank account for him in 1990 by arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, who is currently fighting his own extradition to Germany from Canada.

"I cannot explain how this blunder came about," Pfahls, who is also a former head of the German domestic intelligence agency, told the court. "I somehow got caught up in things."