Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Monday for a NATO summit next year to give a sign to Russia that NATO valued it as an important partner.

Addressing an annual conference hosted by the German Atlantic Society, she said she had high expectations of the cross-border NATO summit to be held next April in Kehl, Germany and Strasbourg, France.

It is to mark the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Gorleben, Germany - Thousands of protesters held up a truck convoy carrying nuclear waste in Germany Monday, repeatedly invading a 20-kilometre road leading to a secure storage warehouse.

Police said the protests, the biggest since 2001 during the waste transport operations, which take place every few months, were also more violent than usual.

Protesters had tried to undermine a railway, seize a truck and shot signalling flares at a police helicopter.

Berlin - NATO's military operations in Afghanistan are a decisive test of the military alliance, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday in Berlin.

Addressing a conference of the German Atlantic Society, she said NATO's acceptance, success and worldwide standing depended on what it achieved in Afghanistan.

She added she had high expectations of the cross-border NATO summit to be held next April in Kehl, Germany and Strasbourg, France, marking the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Bonn, Germany - German mail delivery giant Deutsche Post AG said Monday it was slashing the workforce at its US DHL operations by a further 9,500 after forecasting the express delivery offshoot would post a full-year 1.5 billion dollars loss.

Deutsche Post's job cut plans will reduce DHL Express' 18,400 US workforce to about 3,500 with the American express postal delivery company hit by the rapid deterioration in the US economy following the world financial crisis.

Abuja - German President Horst Koehler signed two bilateral economic policy accords with Nigeria on Monday, after calling for a permanent seat for Africa on the United Nations Security Council.

Koehler, continuing his six-day visit to Nigeria, said that in efforts to reform the UN Security Council, there must be a "fair representation of Africa," although he did not specify which country should be considered to hold the seat.

Berlin - A senior Rwandan official, Rose Kabuye, who has been arrested in Germany on a European warrant, has agreed to be extradited to France, a justice official said Monday in Frankfurt.

Kabuye, 47, is chief of protocol to Rwandan President Paul Kagame and a leading member of his Rwandan Patriotic Front.

After her Sunday detention when she landed in Frankfurt, Rwandan authorities immediately summoned the German ambassador in Kigali to protest.