Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar wants the the European Union to investigate why Britain and the Netherlands were allowed to bully Icelandic citizens over a collapsed bank.

Mr. Ragnar told Icelandic radio Sunday that he wants to know how EU member states could make what he calls absurd and preposterous claims against another.

When the Landsbanki bank collapsed in 2008, British and Dutch officials demanded that Iceland's government guarantee billions of dollars to repay their citizens who had deposited in the bank through a fund called Icesave.

Icelandic voters have rejected such a proposal in two separate referendums.

Landsbanki's owner said last week that it has enough assets to compensate British and Dutch depositors.

But Mr. Ragnar said the matter should have been handled sensibly from the beginning to avoid putting Iceland and its citizens into what he says would have been a straitjacket.