German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is scheduled to visit the United States on Wednesday in an attempt to ease tensions with Washington that stem from German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's determined anti-war stance.

Fischer, who has better relations with American officials than Schröder these days, is expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington before travelling to New York to see U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Iraq, and the United States' potential war there, is the subject at hand. The rift between the decade-long allies developed during Schröder's summer re-election campaign in which he made clear that he would oppose German involvement in a U.S.-led war against Iraq. Polls in Germany showed that Schröder's position helped him win a tight election against conservative candidate Edmund Stoiber.

More damage

Relations between the two countries suffered further damage after one of Schröder's ministers was quoted as comparing President Bush's methods to those of Hitler. Bush then refused to send Schröder a congratulatory message after his September re-election.

As if that wasn't enough, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publicly snubbed his German counterpart, Peter Struck, at a NATO meeting in Warsaw a few days later.

Tensions eased somewhat after Bush wrote a congratulatory note to German President Johannes Rau on the 12th anniversary of German unification.

Schröder, Fischer address Bundestag

On the eve of Fischer's peace-making trip, Schröder told the Bundestag that Germany's relationship to the United States is of utmost and "strategic" importance. Nonetheless, Schröder said in his first major speech to parliament since wining re-election, the top goal with regard to Iraq should be disarmament and international controls.

Schröder said he believes the United Nations should play a key role in the discussion of how to best fight terrorism – and he said he believes that a war with Iraq could still be avoided.

Fischer, who also spoke before the Bundestag, questioned the U.S. for making its conflict with Iraq a greater priority than fighting international terrorism.

"I ask myself if making Iraq the priority makes sense, to put it quite diplomatically," Fischer said. "In fact, I don't believe that setting of priorities matches our threat analysis."

Fischer, a member of the Green Party, reiterated that Germany would not participate in an attack on Iraq.

Concern from business

German business leaders, meanwhile, said it is important to mend the rift as soon as possible. "There is much to sort out and a lot of broken china to mend," Anton Boerner, head of the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA), told Reuters.

German business executives are worried, said Boerner, that a campaign to "buy American, don't buy German," could develop in the U.S.

Transatlantic observers said they hoped Fischer's U.S. visit would make it possible for Bush and Schröder to at least shake hands at a NATO summit in Prague next month. But a meeting between the two leaders over the course of the summit is now seen as unlikely.