Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier travels to the United States later this week to hold talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Foreign Ministry announced in Berlin on Tuesday.

Among the themes likely to come up for discussion in Washington on Friday are the Middle East conflict, Iran's nuclear programme and the situation in the Balkans, spokesman Martin Jaeger said.

The two last met at the NATO summit in Bucharest last week.

On Saturday, Steinmeier travels to Boston, where a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on combating climate change will be launched.

Also on Saturday, Steinmeier is to make a speech at Harvard University on a new transatlantic agenda.

During the trip, the German delegation intends to gain information at first hand on the foreign policy attitudes of the candidates in the US presidential election.

The delegation would also watch an entire Major League Baseball game, "aware that these games can take a long time," Jaeger said. The game will match defending
2007 MLB champions Boston Red and arch- rivals New York Yankees.