Following is a news item from today's English-language broadcast of Deutsche Welle (the official German international radio service), received in North American at noon, EST. Making his first foreign trip since taking office, Germany's new Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has had talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The two leaders who head Social Democratic and New Labour governments said they wanted to promote closer ties between their countries. One step would be regular meetings of ministers to discuss joint policy, for example, to reconcile social equity with economic modernisation. Other topics discussed were European monetary union, starting in January without Britain, the situations in Kosovo and Iraq, and the global financial crisis. Accompanying the Chancellor is Germany's new Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. In January Germany takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months.
