Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier plans to visit a World War II-era concentration camp on an upcoming visit to Italy, his office announced Saturday.

The move could be seen as an effort to mend fences with Italy. Some acrimony exists 60 years after the end of the war about demands for retribution for Nazi-era atrocities.

Steinmeier is set to visit Trieste for a summit meeting on Tuesday. He will take time during his Italian visit to go to the former Risiera di San Sabba concentration camp on Trieste's outskirts. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini will join him.

According to estimates, between 3,000 and 5,000 people were murdered at the camp.

It has only been weeks since the German government rejected a verdict from a Rome court ordering Germany to pay personal damages for Nazi atrocities to match reparations already paid to Italy as a nation.

The case was filed by nine families on behalf of relatives killed when Nazi soldiers massacred 203 people at Civitella in northern Italy in June 1944. The Italian court awarded them 1 million euros (1.3 million dollars)

Germany is currently preparing a complaint to the International Court of Justice in the Hague to fend off further reparation claims. (dpa)