Berlin  - Germany aims for a cooperative relationship with newly inaugurated Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview published Thursday.

"I wish the new president, Dimitry Medvedev, everything of the best and good luck. I am looking forward to cooperating with him," Merkel told the Passauer Neue Presse.

Merkel also said that she had "a very constructive and direct relationship" with Medvedev's predecessor, Vladimir Putin.

"We will continue to cooperate in the future in his new role as prime minister," she said, while also acknowledging that there were differences of opinion.

Medvedev and Putin assumed their new offices on Wednesday. The new Russian president is to pay his first visit to Berlin in June.

Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, had a close relationship with Putin, calling him "a thoroughgoing democrat."

Since coming to office at the end of 2005, Merkel has struck a different course, taking a more distanced approach to Russia, while seeking to mend relations with the United States, which were cool under Schroeder.

German energy experts are acutely aware of the country's dependence on Russian energy supplies. Germany currently draws around a third of its gas from Russia, with the figure set to rise to 40 per cent once the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea comes onstream in 2010. (dpa)