Germany's Steinmeier urges Libya to release medical workers, donates 100,000 euros to health centre

15/11/2006

[Getty Images] Steinmeier

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of deliberately injecting children with the AIDS virus on Tuesday (November 14th), the first day of his five-nation Maghreb tour. The "ongoing problem" of the medics' detention weighs heavily on Libya's relations with Germany and the wider EU, Steinmeier said after meeting with his Libyan counterpart Abdel Rahmann Moahmmed Shalgan in Tripoli. Earlier in Benghazi, the German opened a health centre for infectious diseases and immune disorders and handed over a donation of 100,000 euros.

At the opening of the ninth German-Libyan Economic Forum in Benghazi, Steinmeier supported the progress of reforms in Libya, saying political reform was necessary for modernisation. He praised Libya's decision to give up plans to develop weapons of mass destruction and refuting all forms of terrorism. Steinmeier voiced his hope that the country would soon join the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. (DPA, AP)