Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the northern German city of Hamburg Monday for informal meetings with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The two leaders will witness signings of a series of major bilateral agreements on education, space exploration, youth exchange and economic cooperation while exchanging views on the political crisis in Ukraine, local media reported.

Schroeder, as a good friend of Putin, would help bring forward the relations between the European Union and Russia affected due to the disagreement on the re-run of the Ukrainian presidential election.

Putin's two-day visit had been scheduled for an earlier date but was postponed in September due to a mass hostage taking at Beslan school in southern Russia which cost some 344 lives.

Source: Xinhua