Trieste, Italy  - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel favour a possible partnership between German airline Lufthansa and ailing Italian carrier Alitalia.

"We both view very favourably a collaboration between Alitalia and Lufthansa. In fact we hope it will occur," Berlusconi said during a joint news conference with Merkel in Trieste.

Earlier Tuesday Italy's top financial newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, reported that a private Italian consortium, CAI, which is in the process of purchasing the state's controlling stake in Alitalia, was on the verge of clinching a deal with French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM.

Munich - Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is to make a stopover in Munich, Germany, Thursday to meet with Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer, German officials reported on Tuesday.

The visit is part of a European tour includes a speech to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Valencia, Spain on Tuesday. Saakashvili has been seeking European support in his ongoing struggle with Russia.

The meeting in Munich would be his first visit to Germany as Georgian president.

Berlin - Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones has won a place in midfield for Germany against England in Berlin on Wednesday.

Jones, who missed out on the Germany squad for Euro 2008, gets his chance in defensive midfield after the omission of Torsten Frings.

It will be a first start for the 27-year-old son of a US serviceman who grew up in Frankfurt.

He was the only definite German starter named by team manager Oliver Bierhoff Tuesday for the friendly international.

Trieste, Italy - Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday joined his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini in laying a commemorative wreath for the victims of a former World War II Nazi death camp near the north-eastern Italian port of Trieste.

Steinmeier was in Trieste Tuesday as part of a summit including talks between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Berlin - There's a saying in Germany that when Daimler coughs, the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg catches pneumonia.

Things are not yet quite as bad as that in the home of Mercedes- Benz, or in Germany in general. But strong medicine is needed to get Germany's ailing car industry back on its feet amid a slump in profits and sales.

The first dose was requested by Opel, once the nation's biggest carmaker, which has been brought to its knees by the massive losses suffered by its US parent General Motors (GM).