My colleague Dick Dijkstra informed me today about a new upcoming release of BizTalk Server. This 2006 R3 release will bring us better UDDI support, enhanced LOB adapters, improved interoperability and connectivity for B2B protocols and SOA patterns & best practices. Furthermore, this release is more in line with Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and the upcoming SQL Server 2008. For BizTalk, Microsoft prefers to ship a new release instead of a Service Pack.
All the new additions are cool, but I'm most happy about the integration between VS2008 and BTS 2006. Expect the CTP this, the final release next year.