Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh met here on Tuesday with the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul. In the meeting, they discussed the Yemeni-German cooperation in economic and technical fields as well as the German support to development and economic reforms and the fight against poverty in Yemen. For his part, President Saleh praised the Yemeni-German friendship and cooperation and the German support for democracy and economic development in Yemen. He welcomed German investments in Yemen and affirmed that facilities would be offered to German investors. Meanwhile, the German minister expressed her satisfaction over the progress in the Yemeni-German cooperation and lauded Yemen's anti-terrorism efforts and its achievements in development and democracy fields. She affirmed the German support for Yemen in various fields due to benefit the interests of the two countries, according to a report circulated by Yemen's news agency "Saba". During the meeting President Saleh called for establishing a European fund for supporting political and democratic reforms in the region for boosting the development fields there. On the other hand, Yemen's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ahmad Mohammad Sofan and Wieczorek-Zeul signed an agreement on financial cooperation with Yemen for 2004, under which Germany would grant Yemen 27 millions euro for infrastructure projects.
