"Thirty-five years ago, Willy Brandt reacted to Watergate and Vietnam by taking the initiative with his Ostpolitik," said John Kornblum, a former US ambassador to Germany. "Thirty-five years later, Merkel is doing the same thing with her own form of Westpolitik."
Volker, however, cautioned against concluding that Merkel's rising influence would iron out all the differences between the US and Europe.
"We have to be careful not to think this is a magic bullet," he said. "There are limits to what anybody can do."
Indeed, Merkel's boldest trans-Atlantic initiative -- for an economic zone between Europe and the US -- has aroused little excitement in Washington, where the Bush administration is focused on salvaging the current Doha Round of global trade negotiations.
Merkel is also unlikely to change the stance of Germany or France on the Iraq War. She declined to comment on Bush's plan to commit more than 20,000 additional US troops to Iraq.
"Next time," she said with a smile, switching momentarily from German to English.
In general, Merkel deflected questions about her enhanced status. Even the site of the meeting with a small group of correspondents -- a cramped conference room down the hall from her cavernous office facing the Reichstag building -- seemed calculated to avoid pretense.
But she left no doubt she would push her ideas aggressively. Her trans-Atlantic economic proposal, which aims to harmonize US and European business regulations, is a case in point.
"In a world with rising economies like China, like India, like Latin America, we face completely different competition," she said. "That suggests bundling our power, not falling back on protectionism, but bundling our power."
Merkel expressed confidence that the US had become more open-minded about policies to confront climate change, an issue she has put high on the G8 agenda. Bush, in remarks after meeting Merkel, said it was time to move beyond "old, stale debates of the past."
Merkel said: "I see a greater readiness than in previous years to confront climate and climate change. And I see good possibilities for cooperation in the area of energy efficiency," as well as in bio-fuels.
US officials said they admired Merkel's stern warning to Russia concerning its recent standoff with Belarus over natural gas shipments. Merkel has taken a more neutral line toward Russia than did Schroeder, who took pride in his friendship with President Vladimir Putin.
Asked if she seconded Schroeder's assessment of Putin as a flawless democrat, she said: "I have not yet said that, and would also not say it now. I use the phrase strategic partnership with Russia."
With Germany growing at its fastest clip in six years, Merkel's government looks secure. The question, analysts here say, is whether she will achieve endurance on the global stage. Merkel professes not to be worried.
"Fear," she said, "is not a good political adviser."
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