The German chancellor landed in Washington late Monday night on her first trip to the United States since being re-elected Chancellor in September. She met President Barack Obama before making the first speech to US lawmakers by a German leader in Congress since May 1957 - a rare honor that is extended to America's closest allies, but has not been granted to a German chancellor since Konrad Adenauer 52 years ago.

The chancellor chose the week before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall as the occasion to make a 30-minute speech thanking the United States for its support for German reunification, thus highlighting the trans-Atlantic cooperation that brought the wall down.

Special postwar relationship

Merkel said the US and its then-President George Bush accompanied the political process with much enthusiasm and sympathy.

"From my own personal experience, I well remember those days," the chancellor said in a video speech on her official Web site. Merkel, 55, is the only German chancellor to have grown up in communist East Germany.

But the main purpose of her brief trip to Washington is to prepare for the United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen in December, which is meeting to negotiate a treaty to follow the Kyoto protocol that expires in 2012.

Clear target expected from the United States

The USA's role at the conference is seen as crucial to its success; however, opposition within the US Senate to a domestic climate bill sponsored by the Democrats is a big hurdle. Should the Senate be unable to agree on legislation to cut greenhouse-gas emissions before the summit, the Obama administration will have its hands tied in Copenhagen.

"Fighting climate change is one of the global tasks that can not be delayed,” Merkel said in her Web speech, but warned that it is not clear yet that Copenhagen will in fact be a success.

Afghanistan and Iran

Another major talking point for Merkel and Obama was the military mission in Afghanistan, set to come under review in a major strategy conference in the new year.

Merkel is spending less than 24 hours in the United States, but she will be followed soon by Germany's new foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, who will also make a trip to Washington on Wednesday.

The visit represents the fourth bilateral meeting between Obama and Merkel since his inauguration in January.

bk/db/AP/Reuters/dpa
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn