Germany names Afghan-Pakistan envoy

BERLIN, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Germany has appointed a special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, naming Bernd Mutzelburg to the new position, officials said Monday.

Following the lead of the United States and Britain, Germany has moved to name a diplomatic troubleshooter for the key region, which is posing serious challenges to Western nations' efforts to combat global terrorism, the German publication Deutsche Welle reported.

Mutzelburg, 65, the current German ambassador to India, will be leaving his embassy duties there to focus on his new role in Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said. U.S. President Barack Obama last month named Richard Holbrooke as his special envoy to the region, while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband last week named Sherard Cowper-Coles to a similar role.

The German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that Holbrooke is moving to set up an international working group for Afghanistan that would be similar to one established in the 1990s to facilitate peace talks on the former Yugoslavia.