Germany's new foreign minister will visit the United States next week, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just a week after Chancellor Angela Merkel's government took office as the two countries seek to "intensify" relations, the government said Thursday. Frank Walter Steinmeier will travel to New York Monday and meet there with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and representatives of Jewish groups, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said. On Tuesday, he will meet in Washington with Rice, her deputy Robert Zoellick and the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Steinmeier, meanwhile, was starting a two-day trip to the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, where he was expected to discuss prospects of breaking an impasse on the EU's future budget. On Saturday, the Czech Republic's foreign minister is expected in Berlin.
