Obama in Berlin to give Brandenburg Gate speech

Obama in Berlin to give Brandenburg Gate speech

Senior administrators describe it as a milestone on the road to peace. Others will feel it is nearer to treason.

After more than 10 years of war, President Obama's government will open direct talks with the Taliban.

An office will be opened for this purpose in Doha, and the negotiations will begin in a few days.

Prisoner exchange will be one of the subjects under discussion, but in the first weeks the two sides will simply explore each other's agenda.

But there are conditions. The Taliban must break all ties with Al Qaeda, renounce violence and respect the Afghan constitution, including women's and minority rights.

'Call to action':

This is Mr Obama's first visit to Berlin as American president and his address to students and government officials at the Brandenburg Gate comes almost 50 years after John F Kennedy's celebrated "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

In his speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Mr Obama is expected to make what US officials describe - as "a call to action" for the West to engage in major global issues.

He is also likely to speak in detail about ways of promoting democracy and ending conflicts as well as tackling climate change and nuclear proliferation.

Chancellor Merkel, who faces the voters in September, has already made it clear that she will seek "more transparency" about US internet and telephone surveillance programmes exposed last week.

"We have to be clear, what is being used, what is not being used," she said, adding that while secret services had to fight terrorism, "it must be proportional".

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who hosted the summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, said the G8 managed "to overcome fundamental differences" on the raging Syrian conflict.

However, no timetable for the Geneva talks was given, and the G8 communique did not mention what role Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could play in the future.

This remains a key stumbling block, with Russia backing President Assad, while the US and its European allies are supporting the rebels.

The communique is largely a reaffirmation of what was said at the Geneva Conference in June 2012, reports the BBC's Jonathan Marcus at the summit in Enniskillen.