Warren Buffett will tour Europe in the third week of May, with planned visits to Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

Tonight, Tuesday, he tells CNBC's Becky Quick by telephone:

"My goal is to get on the radar screen of large family-owned companies in Europe, that for one reason or another, need an ownership change, but want the business to be run as it was under the family."

Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, is not as well known in Europe as it is in the United States, where it has also bought many family-owned companies and allowed them to essentially manage themselves.

Berkshire's international profile was raised when it bought Israel's Iscar Metalworks in 2006.  It was Buffett's first acquisition outside the United States.

Buffett told CNBC's Becky Quick he went to Asia last fall because Iscar executives asked him to visit two of the company's plants in China and South Korea: "They've done so much for me that I am going to say yes to anything they ask me."   Links to our coverage of that trip appear at the bottom of this post.

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