German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will visit Ghana and three other African countries next month, it was announced Wednesday.

In his first official visit to Africa since he became chancellor in 1998, Schroeder will travel to Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa between January 18 and 24, 2004.

The trip will serve mainly to deepen Germany's economic relations with the four African countries, said Bela Anda, spokesman for Schroeder.

Schroeder's only visit to Africa was in September 2002, when heat tended the World Summit for Sustained Development in Johannesburg.