Obama, Merkel thrash out Islamabad, Kabul

BERLIN - US presidential hopeful Barack Obama discussed global hotspots Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of a foreign policy speech before tens of thousands in the heart of Berlin.
Obama, who arrived from Israel, joined Merkel at her ultra-modern chancellery at the start of a European tour aimed at burnishing his foreign policy credentials.The Illinois senator also saw Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit before the keenly-awaited speech. Crowds started gathering in the late morning near the venue in the Tiergarten park.
The presumptive Democratic candidate wants the United States and Europe to rediscover their common ground, he told reporters travelling with him.
Obama and the chancellor touched on Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East peace process as well as climate protection and the global economic crisis in an hour-long conversation, according to Merkel’s spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm. Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs called the talks “warm and productive” and said they had focused in particular on “the urgency of stopping Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons”.
Gibbs said the meeting with Steinmeier also covered Obama’s commitment to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime and his concerns about rising tensions between Russia and Georgia, which the minister visited last week.
Merkel said Germany had no plans to go beyond pledges made last month for the NATO-led ISAF mission.
“I can give Barack Obama the good news that we will be boosting the mandate to include 1,000 more troops for the ISAF mission. We also just took over the command of the quick reaction force (in northern Afghanistan),” she said.
“Thus I will make clear that we are not shirking our responsibilities for engagement but I will also make the limits very clear, just as I have done with the current president.”
Obama Thursday warned America could not quell violence in Afghanistan alone, and called on Europe for more troops and funding to crush the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
“America cannot do this alone,” Obama said, at a huge international campaign rally in Berlin’s famed Tiergarten park.
“The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation.
“We have too much at stake to turn back now,” Obama said.