Powell to Germany: "We Will Stand Together"

After a meeting that lasted just half an hour, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder told reporters that they have put the differences between their two nations behind them and that they would work together to lift the United Nations sanctions against Iraq.

Standing before podiums and in front of U.S., German and European Union flags, Powell and Schröder said they had a "candid and direct" discussion with one another.

"There have been differences in the past, but we will stand together," said Powell, who is wrapping up a tour of the Middle East, Russia and Europe with the stop in Berlin.

As expected by many analysts, Powell and Schröder drew on the positives in the German-U.S. relationship. The Secretary of State praised the work of German troops in Afghanistan and their leadership role in the Balkans.

Germany to help lift sanctions

Schröder, who enjoyed his first official meeting in Berlin with a high-ranking member of the Bush administration in almost a year, said Germany was willing to help the U.S. lift the U.N. sanctions on Iraq.

But what remains unclear is what Germany's position will be on the U.S.-British-Spanish resolution currently being considered by the Security Council. A new copy of the resolution, as reported Thursday, calls for a important role for a U.N. coordinator in Iraq, but leaves descriptions of that appointee's duties vague. The US and Great Britain would still retain a large amount of input vis-a-vis the handling and spending of Iraq's oil wealth. The resolution, on which the U.S. is pushing to get a vote next week, has been met with criticism in France and Russia.

Germany, which formed an anti-war alliance with the two countries in the Security Council in the diplomatic negotiations that preceded the invasion of Iraq, has been relatively quiet on the issue. Powell said before the talks that if Germany votes in favor of the new U.S. resolution, it could be a "possible start" to normalization of tense relations between the two countries, strained since Schröder's government came out strongly against a military invasion of Iraq during fall elections.

"We had a basic disagreement," Powell told German television channel ZDF Friday morning, adding that the two countries needed to "move on."

"One way to get started is to begin cooperation on such issues as the U.N. resolution," Powell said.

Security in Afghanistan discussed

Following discussions the two had on Germany's presence as part of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Schröder told reporters that the government would review whether the force should be expanded beyond Afghanistan's capital. The country remains dangerously unstable more than a year after U.S. forces removed the Taliban from power. Germany currently has 2,500 soldiers stationed in Kabul.

Berlin will be on the highest possible security alert during the duration of Powell's visit, which will end early Friday evening. More than 1,000 additional police officers have been called for duty on Friday and police snipers have been posted around Powell's high-security hotel.