Bangalore, India - Sometimes, children just ask the more probing questions - even if it is on the world travels of a foreign minister as he faces such issues as the global financial crisis, Iran's nuclear programme and pirates off the coast of Somalia.

Instead, the public might like to hear whether globe-trotting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier gets homesick or whether he has a favourite foreign land.

Twelve-year-old Berliner Antonia Dolla knows the answers. This week, she became the first child to travel with the official delegation of the German minister during his three-day trip to India.

Antonia is a reporter for the German television network ZDF's children's news show logo! and she was accompanied by a producer, cameraman and her mother, but she was the one who got to ask the questions on the trip to New Delhi and Bangalore.

Homesickness? No, said Steinmeier. His work is too hectic and his trips too short for him to get a bad case.

Favourite country? The diplomat proved diplomatic and couldn't be pinned down although he admitted that he liked travelling to the United States, and Africa had made a deep impression on him.

"What my favourite country is, I don't really know," he said. "It's the variety."

He also gave Antonia a scoop on a tour of the VIP cabin of his plane, admitting that it had a bed because "otherwise, you'd fall asleep in meetings." (dpa)