UPDATE 2-Merkel to press US on climate in speech to Congress

Published: 03 Nov 2009 17:44:44 PST

* Merkel to speak in Congress, first since Adenauer

* German leader to urge U.S. to act on climate change

* Iran, Afghanistan on agenda in meeting with Obama (Adds comments from Oval Office meeting with Obama)

WASHINGTON, Nov 3 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to urge the United States to take bold action to combat global warming in a speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, a month before a U.N. climate summit.

Merkel, who began her second term in office last week, met with President Barack Obama at the White House before giving the first address to the U.S. Congress by a German leader since Konrad Adenauer in 1957.

Obama said the invitation for Merkel to speak underscored the close alliance between the two countries. He noted that the speech comes just days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9.

The closed-door talks between the two leaders were to focus on Afghanistan, Iran and climate change.

Speaking to reporters during a picture-taking session in the Oval Office, Obama praised Merkel's leadership on climate change.

"The United States, Germany, and countries around the world I think are all beginning to recognize why it is so important that we work in common in order to stem the potential catastrophe that could result if we continue to see global warming continuing unabated," Obama said.

Merkel signaled in a podcast over the weekend that the central theme of her Washington visit would be climate change, describing it as a "global task we cannot afford to push back."

Hopes that countries can agree on a binding treaty at the Dec. 7-18 meeting in Copenhagen are dimming and some believe that targeting a deal in 2010 might be more realistic.

A big hurdle is opposition within the U.S. Senate to a domestic climate bill sponsored by the majority Democrats.

If the Senate is unable to agree on legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions before the summit, Obama's Democratic administration will have its hands tied in Copenhagen and the chances of a deal will erode further.

At a final preparatory meeting in Barcelona on Monday, the United States came under pressure to follow other rich countries and set a 2020 goal for cutting greenhouse gases. The summit's prospective Danish hosts said it could not come "empty-handed" to Copenhagen.

"We need a clear target from the United States in Copenhagen," said the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, Yvo de Boer. "That is an essential part of the puzzle.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

Merkel's speech is an opportunity to address U.S. lawmakers directly and drive home a message that the world is watching Washington on the climate issue.

In 2007, Merkel cajoled Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, into backing a strong G8 statement on global warming, earning the nickname "Klimakanzlerin," or Climate Chancellor. But winning over skeptical Senate Republicans may be tougher.

Officials said Merkel's speech would last about 30 minutes and be delivered mainly in German. She is expected to highlight the special postwar relationship between Germany and the United States and Washington's role in helping bring down the Berlin Wall with its tough stance toward the Soviet Union.

The invitation to address Congress has cooled talk in the German media about a lack of rapport between Merkel and Obama.

U.S. officials say the two have developed a solid working relationship after getting off to a rocky start last year when Merkel refused to let Obama speak at the Brandenburg Gate when he was a presidential candidate.

In the Oval Office, the two shared a laugh after Merkel spoke in German to reporters about her visit while seated next to Obama.

"I think what she said was good," Obama joked.

Merkel is the only German chancellor to have grown up in communist East Germany, gaining a unique perspective on the Cold War and the events leading up to the toppling of the Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.

In her speech she is also likely to touch on the conflict in Afghanistan and the Iran's nuclear program as examples of challenges the West must unite to overcome. All three issues are on the agenda for her talks with Obama.

Western powers are engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Iran, which has signaled that it wants fundamental changes to a nuclear fuel deal it committed to in talks last month.

"The president will want to get her sense on how she sees things with Iran and what needs to be happening here," said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The United States, Germany and their NATO allies are struggling to forge a new strategy on Afghanistan, where violence is at its worst since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.

Obama is weighing a request from his top commander in Afghanistan to increase U.S. troop levels by 40,000.

Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have called for a conference early next year to set targets for handing over responsibility for security to Afghan authorities.