AFP - A top aide to President Nicolas Sarkozy sought on Thursday to downplay controversy over the French leader's account of how he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.

Sarkozy recounted on his Facebook page that he rushed to Berlin on the morning of November 9th and was able to chip away at the Wall with a pickaxe later that evening.

A 1989 report from AFP showed that Sarkozy was in Berlin on November 16.

"I think it's really laughable that we are having this debate because the important thing is being there," said Sarkozy's political advisor Catherine Pegard.

"The enthusiasm generated from the fall of the Berlin Wall lasted more than a few hours," said Pegard on RTL radio.

The Elysee palace has maintained that Sarkozy was indeed there on the evening of November 9th even though former prime minister Alain Juppe, who accompanied Sarkozy, has also said he is unsure about the date.

"I asked several people where they were on November 9th and the answers were quite amusing. Many did not know precisely what they were doing that night," Pegard, a former magazine editor, said.

A picture of then 34-year-old Sarkozy chipping away at the graffiti-marked Wall was posted on his page and he wrote of "the beginning of a period of great freedom in Europe."

Sarkozy joined Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders in Berlin on Monday for emotional celebrations of the defining moment 20 years ago at the end of communism in Europe.