Snooping Scandal

Stoiber has condemned the aide's efforts to snoop on Gabriele Pauli, a district administrator in his own Christian Social Union (CSU) party, but dismissed her allegations he knew in advance that chief of staff Michael Höhenberger was trying to gather incriminating information on Pauli's private life.

Stoiber said Höhenberger is leaving his post with immediate effect after Pauli, 49, charged he had asked a mutual acquaintance whether she had alcohol problems or was dating anyone.

While Stoiber at first insisted that his chief of staff had not spied on Pauli and tried to ignore her demands that he step down. But then on Saturday, in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, he went on the attack, describing the snooping as the unsanctioned act of a lone staff member and calling allegations he knew of the incident "nonsense."

"It was the singular act of a staff member," Stoiber said. "I never would have permitted anything like that. He took the appropriate consequence (and resigned)."

'Sleazy' campaign

Pauli, an outspoken Stoiber critic, had told the press Tuesday that she was the target of a "sleazy" campaign and that the aide had "pointedly asked whether they had anything on me".

Höhenberg said Friday that Pauli had given a "false and completely exaggerated account" of the questions he had asked their common acquaintance but recognized that the affair had caused political damage.

Stoiber is the head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

He made a failed bid for the chancellery himself in 2002 and has had a rocky relationship with Merkel, most recently over his criticism of one of the key planks of her reform agenda -- an overhaul of the public health care system.

Allegations of snooping are serious in Germany, especially given the country's history and a legacy of spying by both the Nazi regime and the East Germany Stasi secret police.

Party support

Pauli has said she has received overwhelming support from other CSU party members, who she has said are urging her to keep pushing for the departure of Stoiber, who has governed Bavaria since 1993.

"Even though Höhenberger has resigned, nothing has really been cleared up," Pauli told German television. "It's time Stoiber comes clean with what he knows and when he knew it, and says what will happen in the future to critical voices."