Berlin  - Franco Stella, the Italian architect appointed to rebuild Berlin's royal palace from the ground up, was defended Monday from critics by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Stella, a professor who favours classic buildings rebuilt as modern replicas, has been attacked by Berlin architects, who claimed he did not meet entrance qualifications to design the old-new palace.

Hermann Parzinger, chairman of the state-funded foundation which is to rebuild the palace, ignored those critics, saying in Berlin, "The collaboration works.

"Franco Stella understands the needs of the building's future users very well."

Three out of four facades of the new palace, to be known as the Humboldt Forum, will be identical to those of the Kaisers' 18th- century town house, which stood on the site before the Second World War.

A back wall and the interior will be new designs. A library and university lecture theatres will be inside, with the space and uses to be allocated this year.

Parzinger said he anticipated Stella showing off the completed building as chief architect in 2013.

A Berlin magazine, Art, has quoted critics who allege Stella was not entitled to submit a design because he did not operate a large enough practice or have sufficient revenues before he won the plum contract.

But a lawyer for Stella, Michael Pietzcker, said there was no truth to the allegations.

Stella's design for the reconstruction of the building razed by communist authorities in 1950 was chosen by judges from a short-list of 30 entries in November.(dpa)