Bucharest, June 7 (IANS) Romania has said vegetables grown in the country were not infected with the E. coli bacteria and were safe for consumption, Xinhua reported.

"There is no danger in eating Romanian vegetables, be them cucumbers, lettuce or tomatoes," Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara said.

He expressed hope that "Germany will unveil the exact source of the infection so that no more games will be played to block other export contracts".

He said Romanian farmers were suffering because of the incident that did not occur in the country.

Tabara said Germany put the blame on a product instead of the environment where the product got in touch with the germs.

"Germany has several times changed its position - first, the bacteria was linked to Spanish cucumbers, then to Dutch cucumbers, while this morning we found out the embryos of an Asian bean species eaten as salad were to be blamed. There is a false statement here as well, because the infection was extraneous, not coming from inside the plant," said Tabara.

The minister asked local producers to submit to the ministry their estimates of losses, saying that Romania will ask the European Commission to compensate all the cucumber farmers who have been affected.

The ministry's data indicate that Romanian producers were losing 100,000 euro ($146,000) a day because of the ban on trade in cucumbers.

At least 22 people have died and over 2,000 affected with E. coli bacterial infection in Europe.