Romania's foreign minister called on the British government to officially decry a report published by a British tabloid newspaper.
A report in The Sun earlier in the week voiced fears that a wave of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants expected after the countries join the EU next year could lead to an "explosion" in the number of AIDS cases in Britain.
"We expect more involvement from British authorities ... Their friendship toward Romania can be proven through an official action against these denigrating articles," Romania's Foreign Minister Razvan Mihai Ungureanu said, as cited by the International Herald Tribune.
Ungureanu said the Sun article illustrates the "enormous gaps in knowledge" about Romania in other countries.
"Such articles remind us of what Europe meant during the World Wars, that Europe of xenophobia and of fear of foreigners," Ungureanu said.