Berlin - Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the
US presidency, will have a one-hour, get-to-know-you chat this week in
Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of her spokesmen said
Monday.

Both will appear for a photo call but will not answer questions
from the media after the Thursday meeting, deputy government spokesman
Thomas Steg told reporters.

Steg said she would brief him on closer US-German business ties and hoped to have a "very frank, comprehensive" talk.

"Ultimately it's about them getting to know one another," he said.

The Democrat's biggest public event of his German stay will be a
speech Thursday evening to a crowd at the Victory Column, a Berlin
landmark on a long tree-lined mall that leads to the Brandenburg Gate.

Steg said the German government was not giving any organizational
aid for that event, though it was providing "protocol support"
throughout Obama's stay. (dpa)