German unemployment rose to a new postwar record of 5.2 million, or 12.6 per cent, in February as welfare reforms moved more people onto the jobless queues.

The number of Germans out of work rose, when seasonally adjusted, by 161,000 to 4.88 million or 11.7 per cent.

Opposition politicians made their by now weekly call for labour minister Wolfgang Clement to resign, calling it a "catastrophic day for Germany".

Bild, Germany's best-selling newspaper, ordered Mr Clement, to "finally do something!"

"The gain can be explained, for the most part, in that former welfare recipients are now registered as unemployed and that relatives of those receiving aid had to register themselves," said Frank-Jürgen Wiese, head of the federal labour agency in Nüremberg.

"We had the winter slump and the economy was still weak."

Officials said no further reform-related statistical spikes were likely in March, but that there would be no real recovery either.

Meanwhile Bert Rürup, head of Germany's "six wise men" economics panel, said yesterday that economic growth would be just 1 per cent in 2005, far below the official forecast of 1.5 per cent.