German President Joachim Gauck said on Monday that the suffering caused by First World War represented "the utter failure of diplomacy."

Speaking at a ceremony held in Belgian city Liege on Monday to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, Gauck said that the lessons of the war must be used by today's generation of politicians in maintaining peace in the world.

The President paid tribute to the spirit of the Belgian people both during and after hostilities.

The war in Europe , he said, began with "Germany's completely unjustifiable invasion of neutral Belgium."

This, said the President, was part of "the utter failure of diplomacy, the ill-fated Schlieffen Plan”, which "led Europe into a fratricidal war, which ultimately spread far across the world."

The President was speaking at a day of commemorations marking the beginning of the war. He spoke in Liege before an assembly of world heads of sate and royalty.

He said that the world must now look to the lessons from the war as a warning.

"We are therefore not only united here today in commemoration as representatives of so many countries, but also to remind each other that we share responsibility for the world. We cannot remain indifferent when human rights are violated or when violence is threatened or used. We must actively champion freedom, the rule of law, awareness, tolerance, justice and humanity," he said. Endit

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