BERLIN (AFP)--German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is making plans to travel to Iraq, his office said Saturday, in what would be the first such visit since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
No dates have been fixed, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, but the Handelsblatt newspaper said it would take place after U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20 and before the end of March.
It will seek to "finally normalize relations with the Iraqi government (and) send a signal that the German government supports the Obama policy for the Middle East," Handelsblatt said, quoting German diplomats.
During his winning quest for the White House, Obama indicated he would pull U.S. combat forces out of Iraq over a period of 16 months after he takes office, while directing more resources to the conflict in Afghanistan.
Steinmeier was chief of staff to then-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder when the Iraq war - opposed by Germany as well as France and several other Western European nations - broke out.
In an interview published Saturday in the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, Steinmeier suggested that Berlin expects Obama to work more closely with other nations than George W. Bush did in his eight years in office.
"Of course he will, first and foremost, defend American interests, and of course we will have differences of opinion," the foreign minister was quoted as saying.
"But he is in favor of international cooperation. He wants conflicts to be resolved together, and not alone."
He expressed confidence that Obama won't ask Germany to step up its military contribution to the Afghan effort, at a time when most experts expect Washington to keep pressing Berlin on the issue.
"We have the third-biggest contingent in Afghanistan and we have just increased its size" from 3,500 to 4,500 troops, he said.
"Obama has told me that he very much appreciates the German contribution. More importantly, he says he is favorable to those who are doing more for the reconstruction of the country."
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 08, 2008 10:40 ET (15:40 GMT)

Publié le 08 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones