BERLIN (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is confident that German companies will decide "in the coming days" to head back to his country, he said Wednesday after meeting some 120 business leaders here.

"German companies have a right to hesitate ... but we think we can persuade them in the coming days that the security situation allows them to return," Maliki told a press conference on the second day of a visit to Germany.

The Iraqi premier said he had invited around 120 business leaders with whom he dined on Tuesday to "send representatives to study the situation.

"They said they were prepared to do so," he added.

"We are in control of the situation in the country and are ready to ensure extra protection" to foreign companies, he said.

Maliki is visiting Germany and Italy to try to convince investors that widespread conflict in Iraq has ended and that the country, which sits on substantial oil reserves, has entered a crucial phase of reconstruction.

He was received on Tuesday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who appeared encouraged by the positive turn of events in Iraq.

"We are pleased that several German firms are already interested in taking part in the reconstruction of Iraq," Merkel told media during a joint press conference that followed their meeting.

But a spokesman for the German energy company Wintershall, which has been authorised to bid for Iraqi tenders, told AFP it had no concrete project at the moment, in part because of political insecurity.

Wintershall is a subsidiary of the chemical giant BASF that specialises in oil and gas operations.

"We are on the list of around 120 foreign companies qualified to compete for Iraqi tenders but we have no concrete plans for the moment," the spokesman said.

"There are two aspects: first we have to find a project that is interesting from an economic point of view, and then, political stability is a fundamental pre-requisite."

The German foreign ministry has also not yet lifted a travel warning to the still violent Middle Eastern nation, despite requests from Baghdad.

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