"Lazy Germans" might seem like an oxymoron, but not to Germany's economics minister, who said yesterday his compatriots take too many holidays and are damaging the country's prospects.

Wolfgang Clement called for an increase in working hours and a cut in the number of holidays, saying Germans take an embarrassing number compared with other European workers.

"With regards to holidays, public days off and working hours we have without a doubt reached our limit," he said. "Anyone who compares our holiday calendar with that of other countries can really start to worry." Germany's economy is one of the worst performing of all industrial countries and it has the lowest growth rate in Europe. Unemployment, at 10.4 per cent, is at the highest level since German reunification, and Germany tops the table for freizeit, or free time.

The nation with a reputation for hard work has on average 43 days off a year - 13 public holidays, the rest annual leave. It is followed by Austria and Spain which each have 37.

Britain comes fourth in a survey of 10 countries by the German Employers' Association, with 33.5 days, nine of them public holidays.

Mr Clement's remarks were partly directed at steel workers in eastern Germany who are striking for a shorter, 35-hour working week. Unemployment is at 18.3 per cent. "This amounts to a conflict at the wrong time in a totally wrong place," he said.

The Social Democrat, impatiently trying to push through economic reform against strong opposition, not least in his own party, has gained support from economics experts who say a cut in holidays or a one-hour increase in the working week could boost the economy, now close to recession, by 1.6 per cent.

Economic analysts have predicted increased growth of 0.5 per cent next year, when several public holidays are due at weekends, said Mr Clement.