Dresden, Germany, June 04, SPA --Efforts to press ahead with the Middle East peace process will figure prominently in talks between USPresident Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, according to dpa. The US president arrives in the eastern German city of Dresden onThursday evening for a packed 24-hour visit that will also see himtour a former Nazi concentration camp and meet US soldiers wounded inIraq and Afghanistan. The president was flying in from Cairo, where he gave a landmarkspeech to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, calling for a two-statesolution to the Middle East conflict and urging Iran to open adialogue with the West on its controversial nuclear programme. During his second visit to Germany in 10 weeks, Obama will seesome of the cultural highlights of Dresden, a city which was rebuiltafter heavy bombing by Allied warplanes during World War II. His visit takes in the Gruenes Gewoelbe (Green Vault), a museumthat contains the largest collection of treasures in Europe, and theFrauenkirche church, whose reconstruction was funded throughdonations from around the world. As well as touring Dresden, the president will pay his respectsat the former concentration camp of Buchenwald, located near the cityof Weimar in Thuringia state. There, the two leaders plan to meetHolocaust survivors, notably Jewish writer and Nobel laureate ElieWiesel. The idea for the visit is believed to have come from ameeting Obama had with Wiesel, who survived Buchenwald and haswritten extensively about the Holocaust. It is also intended to show solidarity with Jews worldwide, comingon the heels of Obama's Middle East trip, which omitted Israel. By the end of World War II, Buchenwald was the largest Naziconcentration camp on German soil. Around 56,000 prisoners diedthrough execution or maltreatment before the camp was liberated by USforces in April 1945. It is now a memorial. Obama's great-uncle, Charles Payne, was amongst the soldiers wholiberated a subsidiary camp of Buchenwald on April 5, 1945. In addition to the Middle East, Obama and Merkel are also expectedto discuss climate issues, the global economic crisis, Germaninvolvement in the NATO mission to Afghanistan and the nuclear threatposed by North Korea and Iran. Presidential advisors said the choice of Dresden for the meetingshowed respect for Merkel, who has reportedly charmed Obama withstories of her life in former East Germany. The president will also pay a visit to injured American soldiersat the US military hospital in Landstuhl, undergoing treatment aftertours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. From Germany, Obama travels to France where he will attendceremonies in Normandy marking the 65th anniversary of theAllied D-Day landings.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/671308