Merkel gets warm welcome

2006-01-13 12:30

Washington - German Chancellor Angela Merkel got the red carpet treatment on her first official trip to the United States, as Berlin and Washington work to mend relations severely strained by the Iraq war.

Merkel, grateful for what she said was an "incredible reception", alluded to chilly US-German relations since the US invasion of Iraq, when she expressed happiness that key issues "can again be discussed in an open way".

"That must be our goal," Merkel told a crowd of business, civic and political leaders at a German embassy dinner, including Federal Reserve Chairperson Alan Greenspan and former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell.

"The question is, whether a controversial debate is possible between friends."

"The fight against terrorism is more difficult than the Cold War," she said.

On Friday Merkel was expected to receive a warm welcome from President George W Bush, whose relations with her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder had soured over disagreement on the Iraq war.

Schroeder refused to back the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and he and Bush were barely on speaking terms by the time he left office in November.

Analysts said Merkel and Bush were unlikely to make any major policy announcements after their meeting, which is being trumpeted as a sign of rapprochement between the two countries.

"I think it will be very much of a love feast," said William Drozdiak, president of the New York-based American Council on Germany.

"It's going to be more atmospherics than anything substantive, but that's an important step in the direction they need to go," said Stephen Szabo, professor of European studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. "Both sides want to make it a success."

Merkel, who leads the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) party, has stressed that mending the poisoned relationship was one of her government's priorities, but members of her administration say that does not preclude frank discussions on a number of issues.

The 51-year-old chancellor raised some eyebrows at the weekend after saying that she did not believe facilities such as the US prison for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba should exist in the long term.

Her comment was interpreted by some as setting the tone for her US visit, but observers here say it was unlikely to chill relations.

"It was a way of trying to prevent the negative issues from dominating the agenda when she is here," said senior director of policy programs at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, Karen Donfried

The issues likely to dominate the agenda in her meeting with Bush will be the dispute with Iran over its nuclear ambitions as well as Russia's recent gas quarrel with Ukraine.

- AFP