Merkel Travels to Africa

The chancellor's trip to Ethiopia, South Africa and Liberia will focus on economic development, social issues and business ties, but she is also set to bring up a series of touchy political subjects.

German officials said she would address issues of human rights and good governance and appeal to South Africa to use its influence to bring about change in neighboring Zimbabwe.

"Zimbabwe will be an important subject," a senior German government official told reporters before the trip. "Developments there are still massively problematic."

Pressuring South Africa

Opponents hold President Robert Mugabe responsible for the Zimbabwe's economic collapse. The country suffers from unemployment of around 80 percent and the world's highest inflation rate. Mugabe is also accused of human rights abuses.

The chancellor will spend three days in South Africa, conferring with President Thabo Mbeki as well as his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela, and opposition leader Helen Zille.

Merkel will also confront Mbeki on his handling of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which affects 5.5 million people in South Africa. Critics accuse the South African government of failing to come up with a coherent AIDS prevention and treatment plan. A source in Berlin said Merkel would call for a more "satisfactory" response from Mbeki, the AFP news agency reported.

Merkel put tackling poverty and disease in Africa on the agenda of the Group of Eight industrialized countries during her presidency of the group this year and gave a speech recently to help The Global Fund raise money to combat infectious diseases.

Pushing business ties

Merkel will be accompanied on her trip by a 21-member business delegation, including Economic Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.

Trade between South Africa and Germany amounted to 9.2 billion euros ($13 billion) in 2006, with Germany exporting twice as much as it imported. Some 500 German companies are active in South Africa.

Talks are also planned with leaders of the African Union, an organization whose goal is to promote peace and prosperity on the continent. Merkel will deliver a speech at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa and and hold talks with the head of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare.

AU-EU meeting preparations

The pair will discuss the situation in Darfur, where 10 AU peacekeepers were killed in September, and Africa's role in a planned joint AU-EU peacekeeping mission in the civil-war zone. Their meeting will also serve to prepare for a tricky AU-EU summit in Lisbon in December, the first between the two continents in five years, which Germany is helping current EU president Portugal to organize.

On the final leg of her tour, the chancellor travels to Monrovia for talks with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who impressed Merkel when she visited Germany for this year's G8 summit at Heiligendamm in June.

Merkel is expected to give her support to the Harvard-educated economist's efforts to rebuild the West African country after years of civil war.