German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed to deepen cooperation between their two nations as Poland prepares to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union for the first time on July 1.

Merkel sought to ease Polish reservations over an agreement between Berlin and Moscow to build a gas pipeline that would directly connect Germany and Russia beneath the Baltic Sea. Poland had expressed concern that the pipeline could negatively impact shipping to its port cities of Szczecin and Swinoujscie.

"We have always said that we don't want to go ahead with a project at the expense of another country, especially not our neighbor Poland," Merkel said.

Warsaw and Berlin expressed the intention to expand their mutual gas pipelines and to support the delivery of Russian petroleum across Poland to Germany. The two Central European neighbors also affirmed their commitment to EU expansion and to a deepening of relations with Russia.

German and Polish officials also discussed the possibility of opening a joint embassy abroad.

Working together in the EU

Ahead of the talks, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski published a joint article in the German newspaper Märkische Oderzeitung and the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza in which they called for a deepening of the relationship between the two countries and said they hoped to re-energize the European Union.

Both ministers said eliminating the internal borders within the Schengen zone has been "one of the most striking achievements of European integration" and warned against reinstating passport checks, as some countries have recently proposed. The flow of illegal immigrants into Europe must be dealt with, they said, but not in a way that diminishes Europeans' freedom of travel.

Mutual goals

The 1991 friendship treaty marked the beginning of a new era for Poland and Germany

Tuesday's visit marks the 20th anniversary of a friendship treaty signed by the two countries after German reunification on June 17, 1991. That crucial treaty restated the Oder and Neisse rivers as the border between the two nations and gave Poland support for its European ambitions. Germans living in Poland were given minority status and a number of cooperative institutions and exchange programs were established.

"This is a treaty that really allowed us to change for the better relations between Poland and Germany, which were overshadowed by dramatic and sometimes tragic events," Tusk said.

Poland had long been leery of its neighbor to the west after Nazi Germany's 1939 invasion and six years of occupation. But last week Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski gave a speech in Berlin praising the healthy relationship between the two countries.

At Tuesday's meeting the two sides made a new list of goals, including high-speed rail connections and a gas pipeline between the nations, more Polish studies departments at German universities and a close partnership within the EU.

Author: Spencer Kimball, Holly Fox (AFP, dapd, dpa, Reuters)

Editor: Susan Houlton