The meeting, to take place in the United States, will be the first between the two leaders since bilateral relations have been chilled due to their strong disputes over the Iraq war, the German-language Frankfurter Sonntagszeitung newspaper said, citing information from the chancellery and the foreign ministry.

It is still unclear if the meeting will be held in the White House or during the autumn conference of the United Nations in New York, the report said.

It also said that Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is already scheduled to visit Washington in middle July and will be received as "vice-chancellor."

He visited Washington last October but received only a "short program," the report said.

Preparations for the meetings are under way, according to the paper.

The paper cited US diplomats as saying that the summit meeting being planned is based more on "reason" than "sympathy" for the German government.

On the one hand, the two governments want to "maintain the form," and on the other hand, Germany's neighboring countries asked Washington in last months not to further isolate Berlin to avoid further German "incalculability," it noted.

The two leaders could discuss an expansion of German troops' peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan and Germany's role in Iraq, said the paper.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2003)