Berlin - Frank-Walter Steinmeier who heads up the German Social Democrats' ticket for this year's national election moved Monday to promote restoring economic confidence as a key campaign issue as Europe's biggest economy faces up to a dramatic slump.

In an interview with the London Financial Times, Steinmeier, who is also vice-chancellor and foreign minister, said: "To recover from this will require more than crisis management ... It will take many years of work to restore people's confidence in this economic system and its rules."

Iraq - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived on Wednesday in Iraq's northern Kurdish Autonomous Region in a visit expected to promote business and cultural ties with the relatively peaceful region.

Steinmeier is scheduled to open a German consulate and school in the predominantly Kurdish city of Arbil, where security is better than in the rest of Iraq.

He visited Baghdad on Tuesday in the first trip by a high-ranking German official since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Baghdad - Iraqi MP Osama al-Najifi described German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's visit to Iraq as "historic and significant"

Speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, al-Najifi said that both Iraq and Germany have always enjoyed good relations.

Al-Najifi pointed out Germany's "moderate stances towards Iraq" as the reason behind the special relations.

"Germany refused to take part in the US-led invasion on Iraq because its historic relations with Baghdad is based on mutual respect," al-Najifi said.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived Tuesday in Iraq, marking a reawakening of ties between the two countries after German opposition to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The aim of the trip, which is the first visit to Baghdad by a German foreign minister in 22 years, is to strengthen German-Iraqi relations and discuss the current situation in Iraq and the region.

Munich - The world needs to take advantage of new diplomatic opportunities to try to put together a new security infrastructure, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday.

"The Cold War has been over for 20 years - which means it is high time that we start breaking out of that way of thinking, a way of thinking that sometimes accompanies us like a long shadow out of the past," he said, during opening speeches at the Munich Security Conference.

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed Friday Russia's decision to suspend the deployment of short-range missiles along the Baltic Sea.

Speaking in the German parliament, Steinmeier called the Russian move a "good sign."

He said US President Barack Obama's arrival in office gave an "opportunity, which we must now use," to push forward disarmament.

"I believe that the course will be set this year for disarmament policies over the next 10 years."