Chancellor Merkel meets Putin in Russia

MOSCOW: German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid her first visit to Moscow since taking over from Gerhard Schroeder, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, yesterday.

Merkel met the Russian leader in the Kremlin for talks to discuss Iran nuclear issue, energy ties, the situation in Chechnya and other issues, German officials said.

Though German officials said Iran would be at the forefront of the talks, Merkel initially made only an oblique reference to Teheran's nuclear plans.

"There are a range of bilateral issues to discuss here ... There are international themes to be discussed, connected to your chairmanship of the G8 and also opinions to be exchanged about conflicts," Merkel told Putin as they met.

However, after the meeting with Merkel, Putin said the Iran nuclear issue should be solved without any sudden "erroneous" steps.

"We need to move very carefully in this area. I personally do not allow myself a single careless announcement and do not allow the foreign ministry to make a single uncertain step," Putin said. "In any event, we must work on the Iranian problem very carefully, not allowing abrupt, erroneous steps," he said.

Merkel, who just returned from her first official trip to Washington, agreed with US President George W. Bush on Friday that it was time to refer Iran to the UN Security Council over its refusal to abandon uranium enrichment technology that could enable it to get atomic weapons, officials said.

"In Washington the hope was expressed that there could be common approach by the EU, USA and Russia," said a German government official in Berlin who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Germany is the world's top exporter of goods to Iran and would have much to lose if Teheran faced sanctions. It exported 4 billion euros (US$48 billion) of goods to Iran last year.

Russia, which recently took over chairmanship of the G8 group, also has business interests there. Among other projects, Moscow is building a US$1 billion nuclear power plant at Bushehr in Iran and hopes to build more.

Source: China Daily