Reuters quoted government and business sources said Germany has been working for months on establishing an exclusive raw materials partnership with resource-rich Kazakhstan.

The sources said at the weekend that the initiative aims to secure access for companies to strategic materials not readily available on world markets, especially rare earths that have been at the center of a trade dispute with China.

German industry federation BDI said it had received several positive responses from a dozen or so mid-sized companies to which it had floated the idea just before Christmas.

A spokesman said "Talks are at an early stage. The BDI is looking into some of the initial ideas. Given the high dependency on imports of raw materials, in particular metals, direct cooperation in digging projects abroad could help."

Sources said The German government is deeply involved in the initiative to improve access and a secretary from the economy ministry, Mr Bernd Pfaffenbach has been assigned to boost political support for the idea.

Chancellor Ms Angela Merkel supports the idea of bilateral raw materials partnerships and said recently it was important for German companies to have unlimited access to raw materials.

The Kazakh side is interested in technology transfer from the deal, while Europeans want to wean themselves off dependence on Russia and the growing influence of China.

Kazakhstan mainly a gas exporter is one of the few countries which like China have large deposits of rare earth minerals.

(Sourced from Reuters)