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Obama calls for new effort for 2-state solution
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-05 21:56

Obama calls for new effort for 2-state solution
An Israeli watches televisions broadcasting the speech of US President Barack Obama in Cairo, at an electronics shop in Tel Aviv June 4, 2009. [Agencies]
Touching Friday on an issue that has strained the American-German relationship, Obama also said he didn't seek any commitments from Germany to take a dozen prisoners when the United States closes its prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. German officials have said most should be resettled in America.

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Merkel said her country is prepared to "constructively contribute" to US closure efforts and said she was confident of eventually reaching a "common solution" on the prisoners' fate.

On other matters, Obama said he's seen "some progress" in bringing economic stability to the world, and said he and Merkel agreed that they must continue to "work very closely together" on the issue. Addressing climate change, Obama also said "we're going to have to make some tough decisions and take concrete actions."

The two leaders spoke to reporters after meeting privately at a castle in this east Germany city that has bitter wartime memories. Starting on the night of Feb. 13, 1945, first British, then American bombers pounded the defenseless and largely non-strategic architectural gem, igniting a firestorm in which 25,000 people died -- and in so doing, creating an enduring controversy.

Obama did not address the firebombing, and was in Dresden at the invitation of Merkel, who hails from her country's East.

Later, Obama was to tour the Buchenwald concentration camp, where an estimated 56,000 people perished. Thousands were Jews -- worked to death, shot or hanged by Nazi guards.

In Thursday's speech in Egypt, Obama issued a scathing indictment of those who question the Holocaust, saying that to do so "is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful."

"Threatening Israel with destruction or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews is deeply wrong and only serves to evoke in the minds of the Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve," Obama added.