Prague - Czech arms makers have been long trying to make Germany stop blocking Czech companies in exporting arms and other military equipment.

But now they expect a great change that should come with the state visit of Germany´s state secretary Reihard Silberberg. He is to meet Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg on Friday November 21 but the military equipment transport is not on the agenda of their official talks.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zuzana Opletalová said the main subject of the talks is to be Czech EU presidency.

"Minister Schwarzenberg does not plan to talk about the issue of transport," said Opletalová for Aktuálně.cz.

Silberberg' s office confirmed her words. "The official program of the talks is the forthcoming Czech EU presidency and Czech-German partnership."

Germany is a key transit country for Czech arms makers. However, German legislature sets a rule that all transfers of military material across its territory needs to be officially approved by German authorities. Because of that Czech firms often wait endlessly, if not uselessly for this approval.

Not public

The Defense Industry Association of the Czech Republic is adamant that the issue of military equipment transport will be mentioned.

"It is a long expected visit. We assume that the question will ultimately get discussed," said Association president Jiří Hynek.

Silberberg' s office conceded that the topic may be included in the program. "Yes, it may happen, we don't exclude that. Beside the public agenda every program always contains a part that is not public."

Helicopter to Nigeria

The latest case of a Czech company that was not allowed to transport a Mi-35 helicopter to Nigeria via Germany took place in September.

German officials explained that Nigeria is among the countries Germany is allowed to export only a limited amount of military products. And Germany is not interested in any way in transporting helicopters there and thus help threaten the region's stability.