BUSH-MERKEL TALKS: MIDDLE EAST AND TRADE.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Washington on 4 January where she will seek US support for a revival of the Middle East peace process and measures to boost transatlantic trade under her country's EU Presidency. Merkel will hold talks with US President George W. Bush.

On 1 January,aGermany took over the six-month presidency of the EU and the year-long leadership of the Group of Eight club of rich nations grouping Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and Russia. Germany has laid out an ambitious agenda, including plans to revitalise the so-called quartet for Middle East peace made up of the EU, the US, Russia and the UN, at what it considers to be an auspicious time. Parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert, who...