Report: Germany Ready to Help Yemen Transition

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle arrived Saturday in Yemen for a brief visit to discuss bilateral cooperation with the country's new president, Saba news agency said.

Westerwelle will hold talks with President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi on "fields of bilateral cooperation," the state news agency said.

It also quoted Westerwelle paying tribute to the "peaceful" transition which last month saw Hadi replace veteran strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh who ceded power in line with a Gulf-brokered deal following months of mass pro-democracy protests demanding his ouster.

The new president will be serving for a two-year transitional period and Germany has said it was ready to help Yemen rebuild.

On Saturday Westerwelle reiterated Germany's determination to "help the political evolution" Yemen and said Berlin also stood ready to provide financial aid to impoverished Arabian Peninsula country, Saba said.

Germany will attend a "Friends of Yemen" forum of aid donors in Riyadh in April, the foreign minister said, according to Saba.

The German foreign ministry said that Westerwelle was due to hold a press conference later in the day before heading to neighboring Saudi Arabia for talks that will focus on the violence in Syria.