Peer Steinbrueck said after meeting in Beijing with Lou Jiwei, chairman of the China Investment Corp, the government's sovereign wealth fund, that the Chinese government has "definite interest" in the German market and he and Lou discussed Deutsche Bahn, which is

being partially privatized, as an example.

Deutsche Bahn chief executive officer Hartmut Mehdorn had been in Beijing at the end of last month's Olympic Games and told Steinbrueck that he had gotten "informal and curious queries" from Russia and China, the minister said.

Analysts said the partial privatization of Europe's biggest rail group should generate about six billion euros ($8.8 billion).