PRETORIA, July 5: President Thabo Mbeki will visit Germany this week for the official handover of the football World Cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2010, a senior official said on Tuesday.

Mbeki will also meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel during his three-day working visit to Berlin to discuss South Africa's preparations for sport's most prestigious event, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said in Pretoria.

“The president will participate in the 2010 handover ceremony and launch the logo for the World Cup that we are hosting,” Pahad said at a media briefing.

“His visit comes in the context of South Africa's stated commitment to making the 2010 Soccer World Cup a truly African event,” he said.

South Africa on Sunday are taking over the reigns from Germany, having been two years ago awarded the hosting of the first ever World Cup to come to the African continent.

Local officials this week reacted with outrage at a weekend newspaper report which stated FIFA was working on a back-up plan to host the event in Australia should South Africa not be ready in time or fail to curb its perceived high levels of violent crime.

World Cup 2010 local organising chief Danny Jordaan earlier this week described any suggestion to have the World Cup moved off the continent as a “laughable notion” and “absolute nonsense.”—AFP