Vodafone said earlier it would give Telefonica Deutschland wholesale access to its high-speed network to try to win approval from European Union competition regulators for the Liberty deal.

"The proposal by Vodafone is apparently an attempt to rescue a merger that raises major concerns in the European Commission," Deutsche Telekom, the German market leader, said in a statement.

The proposal would not lead to a single additional broadband cable being laid in Germany, Deutsche Telekom added, saying it could even slow work to build out super-fast fibre-optic networks - a government priority.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Thomas Seythal)