JERUSALEM (AFP)---German Chancellor Angela Merkel laid a wreath at Israel's Holocaust Memorial on Monday on a highly symbolic visit marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Jewish state after the Shoah.
Accompanied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and several Israeli ministers, a sombre-faced Merkel turned up the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Memorial before laying a wreath and pausing for several seconds of silence.
Dressed in a black suit, Merkel -- the first German chancellor born after World War II -- also visited the Children's Memorial and signed the guestbook at the end of her third visit to Yad Vashem since taking office.
"In view of Germany's responsibility for the Shoah (Holocaust), the German government... underlines its determination to build a future together," she said.
Merkel and Olmert then took part in a first-ever joint Israeli-German ministerial meeting with seven German ministers who are accompanying the chancellor.
In a joint statement, they underlined bilateral cooperation in "the fight against international terrorism."
"Cross-border terror networks can only be countered through joint action by the international community."
The two sides also discussed Iran's controversial nuclear policies.
"Israel and Germany share the same serious concerns over Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear arsenal," Olmert said after the talks.
"We also agreed on the need to continue establishing a series of measures to halt this process," he said.
In a separate meeting, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung signed a bilateral security cooperation agreement.
First Chancellor to address Knesset
On Sunday, Merkel visited the grave and home of Israel's founder and first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion at the Sde Boker kibbutz in the heart of the Negev desert in the south of the country.
On Tuesday, Merkel will become the first German chancellor to address the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, an honour normally reserved for heads of state.
Her three-day visit is designed to mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel, which will be officially celebrated in May.
Merkel said she wanted "to show our responsibility for the past -- the horrors of the Shoah -- and demonstrate clearly that Israel's right to existence is a constant in German foreign policy".
More than 60 years since the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed six million Jews, Germany is Israel's most important political and trading partner in Europe.
Merkel's visit is focused on bilateral ties and the conflict with the Palestinians was not expected to be a major topic of conversation, but on Sunday the chancellor reaffirmed her support for the peace process.
Berlin announced last week that it will host an international conference in June on ways to help the Palestinians prepare for statehood.
With Holocaust survivors still alive in Israel, the 53-year-old German chancellor cannot expect to be welcomed with open arms by everyone, and her intention to address the Knesset in German has ruffled some feathers.
When Johannes Rau became the first German head of state to address the Knesset in 2000, he did so in German and several Israeli MPs stormed out in protest.
Horst Koehler, Rau's successor and the current head of state, received a warmer reception five years later and included several sentences in Hebrew in his speech.
