BERLIN, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The German parliament started an investigation Friday into the role of the country's intelligence agency BND during the 2003 Iraq war.

    The 11-member parliamentary panel will probe whether the BND helped the U.S. military during the U.S-led invasion of Iraq, alleged by U.S. and German media.

    It will investigate whether German officials passed on information about a German citizen of Lebanese origin, Khaled el-Masri, who was mistakenly arrested and interrogated in an Afghan prison before being released months later.

    The BND admitted that one of its agents had worked alongside the U.S. military at its operations command center during the Iraq war.

    Though the Angela Merkel-led German government argued that the issue had already been discussed by another parliamentary panel which oversees the activities of the intelligence services, the combined opposition managed to collect enough votes in parliament to force the establishment of a commission of inquiry.

    The results could cause problems for the current coalition government, which is formed by Merkel's Christian Democratic Union(CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

    The previous German government, led by former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, was strongly opposed to the war. Enditem