Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition unveiled Wednesday new far-reaching rules to head off powerful foreign-owned state-controlled funds going on a shopping spree for companies in Europe's biggest economy.

Of particular concern to Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat-led coalition is the threat posed to key German industries, such as telecoms, banks and energy sectors, by cash-rich state funds from Russia, the Middle East and China.

Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Tbilisi on Sunday for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Berlin confirmed Thursday evening.

A government spokesman said the visit would last just a day.

Merkel's visit would follow shortly on her trip starting on Friday to Russia, when she is to meet with President Dimitry Medvedev. That meeting, with the talks expected to focus on the Caucasus conflict, is to take place in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to travel to Tbilisi to lend her backing to efforts to end hostilities in Georgia, her official spokesman said Wednesday.

Merkel also said that the time was not right for allocating blame in the conflict that erupted in the breakaway region of South Ossetia last week.

"The chancellor is firmly convinced that this is not the time for looking into motives, for allocating blame, for denouncing anyone or for making final judgements," Merkel's official spokesman, Thomas Steg, said.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concern Friday about the e

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes the Beijing Olympics will be peaceful, the government press office said Friday as the opening ceremony got under way in the Chinese capital.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said Monday it had surpassed the rival Social Democratic Party (SPD) on the basis of membership figures for the first time since being founded in 1945.

CDU General Secretary Ronald Pofalla said the party now numbered 530,755 members.

According to figures from the end of last month, the SPD, Germany's oldest political formation, had 529,994 members.