Germany's Schroeder woos Southeast Asia

Germany's Schroeder woos Southeast Asia

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder began Europe's courtship of
Southeast Asia on Monday, meeting Malaysian Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad for talks aimed at building economic and
political ties.

Schroeder, who will visit three other countries in the region
this week, is beating a path that French President Jacques Chirac
and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to follow.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian foreign ministry confirmed on Monday
that Chirac and Putin would visit Indonesia sometime this year.

Like all three European leaders, Malaysia's Mahathir firmly
opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, preferring a United Nations
solution to its weapons crisis, a subject Schroeder only touched
on in his set-piece speech.

"The United Nations is the best venue to discuss and debate
the threats and challenges facing the world community as a
whole," he said, without mentioning Iraq.

"It is above all the United Nations through which
international law, the instrument to regulate our international
relations, must be safeguarded and developed," he added.

Schroeder trimmed his Asia tour to allow for a meeting in
Berlin on Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, the
most senior U.S. official to visit Germany since relations soured
over Berlin's vocal opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

Schroeder is the first German chancellor to visit Malaysia,
and while the two countries are not major trading partners,
German firms, led by industrial giant Siemens AG, are chasing
major deals in the country.

Siemens President and Chief Executive Officer Heinrich von
Pierer made the trip out to Kuala Lumpur. Siemens is taking over
an existing Malaysian rail deal worth 100 million euros (US$113.4
million). It already has a 71 million euro stake in the Malaysian
project, which is part of a grand plan for a rail link from
Singapore to China.

Schroeder heads home on May 16, after visits to Singapore,
Indonesia and Vietnam. -- Reuters