Nov 29, 2009, 22:56 GMT
Berlin/Jerusalem - An historic joint cabinet meeting of Israeli and German ministers in Berlin has been postponed because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been ill, both governments confirmed late Sunday.
Senior ministers were to have met Monday in Berlin in a new gesture of reconciliation, six decades after the Holocaust.
German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said that Netanyahu had had a fever, and his doctors advised against the trip. Netanyahu then agreed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to postpone the meeting until January.
There has been only one previous joint cabinet meeting of the two nations before, in March 2008 in Jerusalem during a visit by Merkel. The countries agreed at the time to hold similar ministerial consultations on a regular basis.
Netanyahu's office said he was suffering from a viral infection.
Netanyahu would have left Monday with six cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
Israeli media reported Sunday that the agenda of the meeting included discussions of Iranian nuclear ambitions, attempts to resume negotiations with the Palestinians and German mediation in a possible prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas.
Israel and Germany established diplomatic ties in 1965 after years of negotiations that included reparations for Jewish property lost and looted during the Holocaust.
Israel currently regards Germany as its closet ally in Europe.
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