LATVIAN Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins spoke with his British counterpart David Miliband recently in an attempt to defuse a growing diplomatic row centred on differing interpretations of wartime history. During a speech to the annual conference of Britains ruling Labour party on 3 October, Miliband had said he felt sick to discover that the opposition Conservative Party had formed an alliance in the European Parliament with Latvias nationalist For Fatherland and Freedom party, which he said celebrates the Latvian Waffen-SS with a march past of SS veterans. During a telephone conversation with Riekstins on 4 October, Miliband said his statements had not been directed against Latvia or its government, according to the Latvian Foreign Ministry.