Frankfurt  - Exhibitor numbers at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which opens its doors Wednesday for a five-day run, have fallen 1 per cent to 7,373, according to fair director Juergen Boos on Tuesday.

He spoke as exhibitors were readying their displays for the annual publishers' event.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to inaugurate the event Tuesday evening with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and the 2006 Nobel Literature laureate from Turkey, Orhan Pamuk, attending.

Turkey is special guest nation this year, with 150 of its book publishers represented. In all, nations from 100 countries are exhibiting books in a bid to drum up translation or export deals.

Boos said space rented at the fairgrounds had grown 1.4 per cent compared to a year ago and publishers said they would have 402,000 book titles available for scrutiny.

The 834 British publishers and 662 US publishers are the key vendors of book rights at the fair, while the 3,337 German publishers, many of them very small firms, will mainly focus on outreach to German booksellers and German readers.

Gottfried Honnefelder, chief of the Boersenverein, the association of German publishers and booksellers, said the German book trade was healthy. In 2007, its sales grew
3.7 per cent.

"If we can hold the level of sales there this year, we'll be happy," he said. (dpa)