DW-World.de
Deutsche Welle

United States democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is in Berlin for the first leg of his European tour which will also take him to France and Britain. Obama, who arrived from Israel, met first with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He is also to meet with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit. Later he is due to hold his only public speech of his foreign tour in front of an expected crowd of tens of thousands in front of Berlin's Victory Column. Plans to hold the speech on transatlantic relations at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate were changed after controversy in Germany over the symbolism of the site. Meanwhile German police say there is no cause for alarm after inspecting a suspicious package that had been delivered to the Berlin hotel in which Obama is staying.