Hizbullah lashed out on Saturday at German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's accusations that the party killed civilians in Qusayr area of central Syria, near the Lebanese border.

Hizullah described in a statement Westerwelle's accusations as “void, false and baseless.”

Germany said Friday it had noted "with respect" the United States' promise of military aid to the Syrian opposition but restated it would not deliver weapons to the conflict-ridden country itself.

"We take note of the U.S.' decision with respect," a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters after the U.S. accused Syria of using chemical weapons and pledged military aid to the opposition.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that Germany would set up a fund worth up to eight billion euros ($11 billion) to help victims of record floods which forced thousands from their homes and left a path of destruction.

The accord came at a meeting between Merkel, who has visited water-logged zones four times since the flooding began this month, and premiers of Germany's 16 states on the disaster's impact.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Wednesday said images of demonstrators in Istanbul being chased down by riot police were "disturbing" and warned that the Turkish government was sending the "wrong message".

Reacting after Turkish security forces retook control of Taksim Square, the flashpoint of nationwide unrest, Westerwelle urged Ankara to respect the rights of free speech and assembly.

German intelligence voiced concern Tuesday over the growing number of ultra-conservative Islamic Salafists in the country, some of whom are swelling jihadist ranks abroad, while warning of an increasingly violent German extreme right.

"Salafism is a particularly rapidly growing and extremely worrying group within the extremist Islamist movement," Hans-Georg Maassen, head of domestic intelligence, told a news conference as he presented his agency's 2012 annual report.

Germany announced on Tuesday that it will work on making the lives of a large number of Hizbullah members living in the country “difficult.”

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said a "significant" number of people belonging to Hizbullah were living in Germany but that they behaved in a "relatively moderate way."

The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday that it was in talks with Germany over the potential resettlement of 10,000 Syrians who have fled their war-torn homeland, and was probing the issue with other rich nations.

"We are working with governments, including European governments, to examine ways in which further admission programs and or resettlement programs for Syrians could be successfully used," said UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards.

Deadly floods forging a path of devastation through central Europe for more than a week bore down on northern Germany Tuesday as troops raced to bolster sodden dykes.

Swollen rivers in the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein posed the biggest threat after flood waters caused billions of euros in damage and left at least 19 people dead across Europe.

Germany battled Monday against historic floods wreaking death and destruction across central Europe as a dyke burst forcing hundreds from their homes but the Hungarian capital averted devastation.

Parts of northern Germany continued to be threatened by the swollen River Elbe where a dyke was breached overnight in Saxony-Anhalt state, adding hundreds to the already thousands of German residents to have been evacuated.

Germany plans to expand a credit scheme for small and medium enterprises from crisis-hit Spain to also cover Portugal and Italy, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was quoted as saying Sunday.

Under the Spain program, which Schaeuble recently presented to parliament, Germany's KfW public investment bank will offer 800 million euros (about $1 billion) in loans to businesses via Spain's ICO bank.