The German and Italian heads of government Gerhard Schroeder and Massimo D'Alema are meeting in Bonn today for talks expected to centre on the case of the Kurdish separatist leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

He was arrested in Rome earlier this month.

After an appeals court rejected a Turkish extradition request for Mr Ocalan, Italy has been pressing Germany to make a similar request, in line with an arrest warrant it issued eight years ago.

But a BBC correspondent in Bonn says Germany is unwilling to ask for Mr Ocalan to be extradited for fear of disturbing the uneasy peace between the country's large Turkish and Kurdish populations.