Merkel hosts Bush on likely final visit to German; Iran expected to feature in talks

: U.S. President Saint George W. Shrub was enjoying Chancellor Angela Merkel's cordial reception at a manor house house in the German countryside ahead of negotiation Wednesday likely to touch anew on prospects of raising pressure level on Islamic Republic Of Iran over its atomic program.

Merkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, welcomed Shrub and first lady Laura Shrub on Tuesday eventide to the German government's invitee house in Meseberg, a little small town about 70 kilometres (40 miles) North of Berlin.

The restored 18th-century manor in what was once communistic East Federal Republic Of Germany offers a relaxed setting for the meeting between Shrub and Merkel, whom the president invited to his Crawford, Texas, spread in November.

"I have got great outlooks for the meeting," Merkel told newsmen ahead of Bush's arrival. "We will have got a whole batch of things still to discuss."

She did not elaborate, but Iran, the Center East peace process, Islamic State Of Afghanistan and the extroverted Group of Eight acme were among issues expected to be on the agenda. Today in Europe

In Republic Of Slovenia on Tuesday, the Shrub sought to beat up European Union leadership behind tougher countenances against Iran, in an effort to squash its finances and derail its possible chase of a atomic weapon.

Iran's leadership "can either confront isolation, or they can have got better dealings with all of us," Shrub said following a acme with top functionaries from the europium and Slovenia, which throws the 27-nation bloc's rotating presidency.

Germany have been working along with the U.S., Russia, China, United Kingdom and French Republic to develop a bundle of fresh punishments and inducements aimed at getting Teheran to hold U enrichment.

Enrichment can bring forth both atomic combustible and the fissile stuff for the core of atomic warheads. Islamic Republic Of Islamic Republic Of Iran take a firm stands that it have only civilian usages in head for its atomic program, but Shrub said Iran "can't be trusted with enrichment."

Another likely issue for the two leadership on Wednesday is planetary warming. Shrub have long been at likelihood with Europe on the issue, particularly over whether any clime scheme should include compulsory decreases of emanations of nursery gases.

In Slovenia, Shrub said: "I believe we can actually acquire an understanding on planetary clime alteration during my presidency," which stops on Jan. 20, 2009.

Bush's visit is his 5th to Federal Republic Of Germany since he took business office in 2001 — a time period during which dealings chilled over former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's blatant resistance to the U.S.-led warfare in Iraq, then warmed considerably after Merkel came to powerfulness in 2005.

Merkel, a conservative who grew up in East Germany, worked difficult to better neckties with Bush, but also won regard at place by publicly criticizing the Guantanamo Bay hold center.

In 2006, she welcomed Shrub to her parliamentary constituency on the Baltic Sea coast, sharing a joint wild wild boar with the president and first lady. Shrub returned last twelvemonth for the German-hosted G-8 summit.

The German government's coordinator for U.S. relations, Karsten Voigt, cautioned against playing down Bush's visit as human race attending focuses on who will win him adjacent year.

"The American president have such as great powerfulness in foreign and security policy that, up until his concluding twenty-four hours in office, he stays capable of decision-making," Voigt told public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Still, even Merkel nodded toward the prospect of alteration after Bush's replacement is elected.

"This is (his) last European tour," she said on Tuesday. "A new clip will get then."

Following his halt in Germany, Shrub will go on to Italy, French Republic and Britain.