PRIME Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg made an unofficial visit to Germany and an official one to Austria in the past week.

On the second day of his visit to Germany, Saxe-Coburg visited the city hall of the town of Coburg, where with EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen, he signed the Coburg Golden Book.

"I am extremely happy to be here now," Saxe-Coburg said.

He saw in his connection with the Von Saxen-Coburg-Gotha family a symbol of the good relations between Bulgaria and Germany over the years.

Speaking on the occasion, Verheugen said that Bulgaria's journey on the road to Europe is irreversible.

"Bulgaria will be a member of the EU, and soon, because the Bulgarians want it and are working hard to prepare for it," the commissioner said.

Saxe-Coburg and Verheugen were given statuettes of Coburg's patron saint St. Mauritius.

Saxe-Coburg received one more present from Coburg Mayor Norbert Kastner: a book of music scores with hymns dedicated to Saxe-Coburg's grandfather, King Ferdinand, which was recently found in the Coburg archives.

Ferdinand lived in Coburg from his abdication after World War 1 to his death in 1948. As part of his programme, Saxe-Coburg visited Ferdinand's grave, and then the Callenberg Palace, the residence of the Von Saxen-Coburg-Gotha family.

Saxe-Coburg toured Saturday the town of Gotha in the federal province of Thuringia. Coburg and Gotha were the two towns in the former duchy of Saxen-Coburg and Gotha.

In Gotha, he visited the Friedenstein palace. Built in the 17th century, the Freidenstein palace is one of the biggest early baroque palaces in Germany. Until 1945 the palace was owned by the Saxen-Coburg and Gotha family. It currently hosts an art gallery.

On Monday and Tuesday, Saxe-Coburg attended a meeting in the Austrian city of Salzburg of the prime ministers of Southeast European countries.

"The idea of the meeting was to exchange views on the future prospects of the region in an informal situation. We discussed a range of regional issues, including infrastructure projects and the creation of an international academy for administration," Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, who hosted the meeting, said after the event.

The other participants in the meeting were the government leaders Zoran Djindjic of Serbia, Adrian Nastase of Romania and Dragan Mikerevic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Stability Pact Coordinator Erhard Busek.

The forum was also attended by top officials of Siemens, Daimler Chrysler and Raiffeisenbank. The prime ministers of Macedonia, Albania and Croatia did not take part in the event due to domestic political reasons.

The meeting in Salzburg coincided with the third anniversary of the official signing of the Stability Pact.

Busek, in a brief review of the Pact, said its most important results were that it had opened the region's European prospects, improved trans-border cooperation and led to the signing of free trade agreements.

"However, the planned results in implementation of infrastructure projects and improvement of the region's investment climate are yet to be attained," Busek said.

Ferrero-Waldner said car industry officials were interested in making investments in an auto parts plant in the region.

Emerging from the meeting, Saxe-Coburg noted the importance of regional cooperation not only in the economy and politics but also in the sphere of culture, and especially university cooperation.