German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder yesterday accidentally extinguished Israel's eternal memorial flame for the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust. At a sombre ceremony in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Mr. Schroeder turned a handle that was supposed to make the flame rise. It went out instead.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who accompanied Mr. Schroeder to Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrances, stepped forward to try to help, but was unsuccessful. Finally, a technician used a lighter to bring the flame to life again.

Mr. Schroeder was in Israel as part of a Middle East tour. Visiting dignitaries are taken as a matter of course to Yad Vashem to pay their respects to the Holocaust dead.