Berlin  - Germany is to open a consulate-general with a senior diplomat in charge in Arbil, part of the Kurdish region of Iraq, officials in Berlin said Monday, a day before Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki begins talks in Berlin.

Germany already has a small office in Arbil. A consulate-general is a full-scale mission outside a nation's capital. The mission would open at the start of 2009 once security issues had been settled, the Foreign Ministry said.

Al-Maliki was set to meet on Tuesday in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel to press for more German investment in and trade with Iraq. German businesses are already operating in the relatively calm north.

Aides said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier set out the plans in a phone call Monday to his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiar Sibari.

Arbil is capital of a predominantly Kurdish province also called Arbil.

Germany's embassy in the capital Baghdad has been hampered by its location outside the most secure, US-guarded part of the city. (dpa)