At Berlin talks, Merkel calls for more Tibet talks (3rd Lead)

Jan 29, 2009, 11:48 GMT

Berlin - Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed Thursday to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to resume Beijing's talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.

'Germany has an intense interest in the talks with the Dalai Lama resuming,' Merkel told reporters after initial discussions with Wen.

She said Germany was willing to make a 'constructive contribution' on the matter.

She also said Germany did not question the one-China policy.

Wen said there had been broad agreement in his talks with Merkel and her ministers which dealt with the global economic slump and financial crisis.

'My visit to Germany puts me in a good mood,' Wen told reporters.

Wen had been welcomed with military honours during the busy day of talks on boosting two-way trade between the world's top two exporter nations.

The salute from German soldiers was part of the pageantry marking a mid-winter day that also included signings of six agreements.

About 60 Tibetan demonstrators outside Merkel's office shouted and waved flags and placards as Wen's motorcade arrived for the ceremony. They asked Merkel to press Wen to engage in full talks with theDalai Lama.

Merkel had met earlier in the day for breakfast with Wen, with both sides setting out plans to boost trade, aides said.

Other senior ministers who met with Wen included Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Economics Minister Michael Glos and Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

In a sign of the improved relations between the world's two biggest exporters, Merkel and Wen said their two countries should develop closer economic ties.

Six agreements signed by officials and business leaders in Wen's presence included one on the two governments cooperating over climate change.

North Rhine Westphalia state agreed terms for Sany, a manufacturer of cranes and concrete pumps, to build a 100-million-euro (130-million-dollar) site employing 600 workers in Germany to assemble construction machinery.

There was also a deal by the ThyssenKrupp industrial group to license some of its key technologies for the German-designed magnetic-levitation rail system, the Transrapid, to China.

Daimler signed a contract with Beiqi Foton Motor Co. to build Mercedes trucks in China, there was an accord with the model business city of Xuzho, and German museums agreed to send an exhibition to Beijing about Enlightenment art.

Relations between Germany and China have improved since a spat in 2007 when Merkel met the Dalai Lama at her office in Berlin.

The chancellor held talks with the Chinese premier when she visited China in October last year to take part in the biannual Asia- Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing.

The one-day stop in Germany is the second stage of a European tour that took the Chinese leader to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in Davos, and will see him travel to Spain and Britain.

From Berlin, Wen travels to Brussels for talks with the European Commission that were cancelled by Beijing in November, following a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who then held the rotating EU presidency, and the Dalai Lama.