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Clinton to visit Germany in May

BERLIN: US President Bill Clinton is to receive a prestigious peace prize and attend a political summit with world leaders during a visit to Germany in early May, officials said on Wednesday.

Clinton will kick off the visit from May 1 with a trip to Aachen, where German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will award him the Charlemagne prize for his role in promoting peace, democracy and human rights in Europe, the city's mayor, Juergen Linden, said.

It will be the first time that the prize, which pointed to Clinton's efforts for rapprochement between Greece and Turkey and for lasting solutions to the Cyprus and Northern Ireland conflicts is awarded to a US president.

The US leader, accompanied by wife and US senatorial candidate Hillary, will then go to Berlin on May 2, where he will attend a summit of "reformist" leaders, German government officials said. AFP