New Delhi, Nov 20 : German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Lal KrishnaAdvani in New Delhi on Thursday.

Steinmeier is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the course of his visit.

Steinmeier, who is also vice-chancellor of Germany, is on a three-day maiden visit to India, to discuss various bilateral issues including enhancing trade ties between the two countries.

Issues like current global economic crisis and environment protection are likely to be the focus during his visit.

Berlin - Zimbabwean prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai said Thursday he was confident of an end to the political impasse holding up the formation of a government of national unity.

Speaking after talks with German officials, he said this would come after issues relating to the definition of the prime minister's powers and the allocation of government ministries had been resolved.

"We will find a solution. It may take some time, but we will find a solution. The position of President Robert Mugabe is untenable," he said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Berlin - A silver medal minted for collectors by Germany's post office caused outrage in Germany Thursday with the discovery that it honours a 1946 act of communist dictatorship.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee demanded that the Deutsche Post company melt the "scandalous" medals down.

The Hague - German judge Christof Fluegge, 61, was sworn in as a permanent judge Thursday afternoon at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) located in The Hague.

He replaces Wolfgang Schomburg who resigned from the ICTY on November 18.

Berlin-born Fluegge is an expert in criminal law for the Council of Europe and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation.

Essen, Germany - One of Germany's two main electricity companies, RWE, said it signed up Thursday for a project to build two nuclear power reactors in Romania.

RWE is legally required to shut down its nuclear plants inside Germany over the next 15 years as Germany abandons atomic power, but the company has been advocating a return to nuclear power.

It initialled Thursday the investment terms for two new reactors at Cernavoda Power Station in Romania, RWE said at its main office in Essen, Germany.

Berlin - A world economic confidence index released Thursday and drawn up by leading German institute dropped to its lowest level in 20 years amid worries that the global economy faced recession.

The Munich-based Ifo institute said its world economic climate survey fell in the fourth quarter to 60 points from 73.4 points in the third quarter.

"Altogether the data points to a global recession," the institute said releasing the report, adding that the expectations for the coming six months have worsened further.