President Traian Basescu publicly apollogized for his confusion on Wednesday, when he said he knows nothing about the two Romanian workers detained by the American forces in Iraq, accused of espionage. Basescu admitted his mistake and said the Foreign Ministry briefed him on November 13th.

The president added that all thye necessary actions were taken in order to find out whether the Romanians were really involved in espionage acts or just taking pictures in the water plant where they worked.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, one hour before the presidential speech, that he received no briefings on the detaining of Romanian Workers in Iraq. “I found out from the media, I checked and there was no data on the situation in my cabinet”, said Tariceanu.

Romanian Foreign Ministry officials provided on Wednesday the first details on the situation of two Romanian workers retained in Iraq, after a Bucharest-based newspaper announced the two were „arrested” three months ago as they were caught taking pictures at a US base near Baghdad.

The sources said the two were retained - not arrested - by coalition forces in October and their deeds were subject of investigation as no charges have been issued yet.