German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's upcoming visit to Southeast Asia shows he is determined to establish strong relations with the region and enhance economic, trade and political ties, a senior German envoy said today.

Jurgen AR Staks, who is German ambassador here, described Schroeder's week-long visit to four Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries -- the first by a German chancellor -- from May 11 as an historic event.

"This is a very historic moment. It is historic not o­nly with regards to Malaysia but to Southeast Asia because it is the first visit of a German chancellor," Staks told AFP .

Role in the region

Staks said Schroeder's visit, 14 months after Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad visited Berlin, transmitted two signals about the role Germany wants to play in the region.

"One is with regards to bilateral relations and the other is the inter-regional cooperation between European Union (EU) and Asean," he said.

"It is important that these two organisations develop a more substantive and intensive cooperations in the fields that they have been active in the past but which could be exploited a little more, particularly economic cooperation and political dialogue," he added.

Staks said Schroeder would also exchange ideas with regional leaders o­n post-war Iraq, the Middle East conflict and terrorism besides identifying ways to enhance economic and cultural cooperation.

"We consider the United Nations the perfect international body for the reconstruction of Iraq and then of course all the member states that are ready to contribute to the reconstruction should do it under the UN umbrella," he said.

Trade in favour of Malaysia

Germany emerged o­n the side of France and Russia in opposing any UN resolutions that would authorise war much to the anger of the United States. Malaysia was also opposed to the US-led war in Iraq.

There are about 300 German companies in Malaysia with total investments of about RM6.8 billion (US$1.8 billion). Total trade in 2001 was RM25 billion in favour of Malaysia.

German's imports consist of electronics, electrical and palmoil while exports to Malaysia include electronics, machinery and motor vehicles.

Schroeder's delegation of some 30 people includes his economics and labour minister Wolfgang Clement and some business leaders. AFP