Berlin, June 23: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf will visit Germany next week for talks on international anti-terror efforts and Afghanistan, a government spokesman said today. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will receive Musharraf in Berlin on June 30 at the start of a three-day visit to Germany, Schroeder's spokesman Bela Anda said. Pakistan's military ruler has traveling to the United States, Britain and France.

Anda said the talks in Berlin would focus on the fight against terrorism and the situation in Pakistan's troubled neighbour, Afghanistan, as well as bilateral relations. Germany currently co-commands the international security force in the Afghan capital Kabul and is weighing whether to send troops to another region to support reconstruction efforts threatened by a surge of attacks on foreign troops and aid workers.

Four German soldiers were killed in Kabul on June 7, when an explosives-laden taxi slammed into the bus they were traveling in. Supporters of Afghanistan's former Taliban government and its al-Qaeda allies appear to be regrouping along Pakistan's mountainous frontier with Afghanistan.

Bureau Report