Swiss-U.S. tax deal not dependent on UBS case: Finmin

ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss-U.S. double taxation agreement was never dependent on the court case against Swiss bank UBS, a spokesman for the Swiss Finance Ministry said on Friday.

"It has never been the idea to integrate a solution to the UBS case in the double taxation agreement or to make the agreement dependent on such a solution," a finance ministry spokesman said.

"It is a fact that Swiss finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz has made clear to his U.S. counterpart (Timothy) Geithner, that it would be extremely difficult, to get a double taxation agreement through parliament as long as there is no solution in this case," he said.

(Reporting by Sven Egenter)