BERLIN - German authorities arrested three Iraqis on suspicion that they planned an attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi while he was visiting Germany today, the country's chief prosecutor said.

The arrests were announced while Allawi was in Berlin and hours before he met German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Investigators who had the three suspects under surveillance noticed an increase in activity, phone calls and suspicious movements by one of the suspects before Allawi's visit that amounted to "evidence of plans of an attack," chief federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said.

All three were members of the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, Nehm said at his agency's headquarters in Karlsruhe.