BERLIN, Oct 27: A diplomatic row has been sparked between Berlin and Islamabad after the Pakistani authorities failed to inform their German counterparts of the arrest of two Germans suspected of terrorist ties, the German foreign ministry said on Saturday.

German authorities learned of the arrest of the two men from press reports published two weeks after the fact, a spokesman with the ministry said, confirming reports to be published in Focus magazine on Monday. The two men, and an Australian national, were arrested on October 5 trying to illegally enter Pakistan from Afghanistan after spending time in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, the daily Berliner Zeitung reported last week.

The ministry failed to provide their names, but they were partially identified by Focus as Bekim A. and Ibrahim D., a Lebanese asylum seeker.—AFP