Berlin - Barack Obama's call for a renewed transatlantic partnership drew a positive response from German politicians Friday, as the Democrat senator prepared to travel on to France on the next leg of his foreign tour.

Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian CDU/CSU, said the speech had been in the best tradition of US foreign policy.

Speaking to German media, Von Klaeden said the speech could as well have been made by Obama's rival for the US presidency, Republican Senator John McCain.

Nicosia - The two leaders of the ethnically divided island of Cyprus were set to meet again on Friday to decide whether the conditions were favourable to launch direct reunification talks.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat have held several meetings to discuss progress made by working and technical groups striving to set the groundwork for the start of peace talks to end the decades-old division of the island.

The working and technical groups from both communities are trying to narrow the divide on a number of issues ranging from environmental protection, health, security, power-sharing, culture, ways of linking the island's two economies as well as property and territory disputes.

Herat, Afghanistan - Surrounded by tight security, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived Friday in Afghanistan for a surprise visit.

Steinmeier, who is expected to stay several days in the country, arrived Friday morning in the western Afghanistan city of Herat in a German military plane.

It is Steinmeier's third visit to Afghanistan.

Germany currently has 3,500 troops stationed in the war-torn country and is under pressure from NATO allies to increase the presence by 1,000 soldiers by this autumn.

New York  - The United States said Thursday that it would seek to impose "stronger measures" if Myanmar's military regime continues to refuse to implement democratic reforms and release political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said following a UN Security Council meeting that UN special envoy for Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari must bring back "concrete results" from his scheduled mid-August visit to Myanmar.

Washington  - The United States wants to shift about 226 million dollars in aide for Pakistani counterterrorism effort to upgrade the country's fleet of F-16s.

The money was originally allocated for counterterrorism activities in the lawless tribal regions of the country near the Afghan border, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have sought refuge.

But Pakistan has undergone economic turmoil and rising fuel prices and requested assistance for its US-built F-16s, State Department acting deputy spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said Thursday.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday Israel's intention to erect new Jewish housing in the West Bank would violate agreements reached in negotiations to resolve the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

Ban's spokesperson Michelle Montas said, "The secretary general has stressed many times before that settlement construction or expansion is contrary to international law and Israel's commitments under the road map and the Annapolis process."