BERLIN - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora is to visit Berlin next week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the German government announced Friday.

Seniora would also hold talks on Wednesday with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the government spokesman said.

No further details were made available.

Merkel has made the Middle East a central focus of German foreign policy.

Germany currently heads the naval part of the UNIFIL deployment in Lebanon, deploying ships off the country's coast to halt the smuggling of arms to the militant Hezbollah movement.

The government spokesman reiterated the German position that progress in the region depended on the recognition of the right of Israel to exist within secure borders and on the sovereignty of Lebanon.

Syria was expected to play a 'constructive role' in securing peace in the region, he added. -DPA