What is the difference between TUV and ABE certification?

["Anthony K.B. Chan" <chan@seattleu.edu>]

Can someone tell me the differences between the German TUV and ABE 
certification? I just got a catalog from Rial wheels of America, some of 
their wheels are TUV certified and some of them are ABE certified. In the 
catalog there are some brief explanation of what TUV means and ABE 
means. They didn't really point out which is a higher standard of 
certification. I thought I read about something in European Car Magazine 
which said ABE is a higher certification standard than TUV. Can someone 
confirm it for me? By the way Rial is a German company.  

Thanks,

Anthony Chan
chan@seattleu.edu
92' 100 V6