Romania says sorry to German foreign minister for map gaffe

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu has apologized to his visiting German counterpart for handing him a booklet during a televised news conference that mixed up a map of Germany with one of France on the cover.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid a one-day visit to Romania on Monday to hold talks on bilateral relations, NATO, east Ukraine and to mark 135 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"Due to a regrettable technical error, exclusively on the cover of the booklet, the border of the maps of Romania and France - with the latter being covered by the German flag - was printed," the ministry said in a statement late on Monday.

"The Romanian foreign minister has directly conveyed profound regret for this situation to his German counterpart."

It is the second time in just over a month that Romania's foreign ministry has had to apologize for a mistake.

In February the Romanian embassy in Paris sent out invitations for a reception and accidentally attached a spreadsheet with unflattering descriptions of guests such as "undesirable" or "ghastly".

(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Editing by Matthias Williams/Hugh Lawson)