US President Obama: Angela Merkel Is 'Exceptional Leader'

US President Barack Obama has described visiting German chancellor Angela Merkel as an "exceptional leader".

Greeting Merkel at the White House on Tuesday, Obama also praised Germany, calling it a "strong and exceptional" ally.

Merkel arrived in Washington last night on an official visit, during which she will later addressed the General Assembly of both chambers of the US Congress.

The first German Chancellor to address Congress, she is to raise the issue of climate change and the need for a new global warming agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, that expires in 2012.

The Chancellor told Obama that she would use the occasion to thank the US for their support in connection with the fall of the Berlin Wall exactly 20 years ago. “This is something that we, the Germans, will never forget.”