Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a joint cabinet meeting of the Asian and European export powers next week, Berlin said Wednesday.

Beijing will next Friday send 14 cabinet ministers, and Germany 12, to their third joint government consultations.

Ukraine's tenuous truce and troop withdrawal deal lay in tatters on Tuesday after the deadliest wave of attacks by pro-Russian insurgents in more than a month killed nine government soldiers.

The surge in clashes across the separatist rust belt spelled an ominous start to campaigning for parties that make the ballot for October 26 parliamentary polls once the registration deadline passes on Tuesday night.

The Islamic State group's jihadist appeal is fanning fears that it could serve as a potent new rallying cry for Southeast Asian extremists who had been largely brought to heel following past deadly terror attacks.

Authorities in Indonesia -- the world's most populous Islamic country -- and Muslim-majority Malaysia have watched with alarm as scores, possibly even hundreds, of their nationals are believed to have gone to Syria and Iraq to join the fight for a hardline Muslim caliphate.

German police Monday investigated six private security guards accused of assaulting and humiliating asylum seekers in a refugee center in ways that drew comparisons to violence against Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

Police also questioned hundreds of fellow refugees after shocking photo and video footage emerged, including an image showing a security guard pinning a handcuffed Algerian man to the floor with his boot on the man's neck.

The Philippines dispatched an estimated 1,000-plus extra soldiers to its troubled south on Sunday to strengthen security after Islamic militants threatened to kill one of two German hostages, the military said.

A military statement said an army brigade, a unit that usually comprises between 800 to 1,500 troops, was flown to the remote Sulu island group, where the Abu Sayyaf militants are believed to be holding the two German tourists.

Germany will host an international conference next month to mobilize aid for Syrian refugees after the launch of U.S.-led airstrikes, the foreign minister told the United Nations on Saturday.

Millions of Syrians have fled to neighboring countries and beyond, driven from their homes in three-year war and the recent offensive by jihadists.

Consumer confidence in Germany is fading, weighed down by concerns about the economic fallout from geopolitical crises, a new poll found on Friday.

"In the eyes of consumers, ongoing geopolitical tensions are now also threatening to affect the economy in Germany. And it has led to a drop in optimism," market research company GfK said in a statement.

Germany said Wednesday it would not change its policy following a reported threat by Philippine Islamist militants to kill a German hostage unless Berlin stops backing U.S. action against jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

"We heard about the report and I would like to say one thing: threats are not an appropriate way to influence our policy in Syria and Iraq," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

Three Iraqis arrested in Switzerland in March are suspected of having planned an attack in the name of the Islamic State group, Swiss media reported Wednesday.

The daily newspaper Tages Anzeiger reported that Switzerland's Federal Intelligence Service had been tipped off by a western counterpart which intercepted the men's phone calls.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered support on security and economic development to Afghanistan in a phone call Tuesday congratulating its new president-elect Ashraf Ghani, her spokesman said.

Merkel said it was now important to strengthen Afghanistan's stability and its economy and further boost the country's democratic and constitutional development, he said.