Merkel urges, "Look to future," after meeting Czech premier

Germany and the Czech Republic have to "look to the future," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday during a first visit to Berlin by the new Czech prime minister, Petr Necas, dpa reported.

Relations between the two neighbours have been dogged by decades of friction over the expulsion of ethnic Germans from areas such as the Sudetenland after the end of the Second World War.

Necas, who heads a centre-right government, became prime minister in Prague last month with a vow to reduce government debt.

Speaking to reporters before he went to Merkel's office, Necas said German-Czech relations had to be oriented to the future.

"I agree with the prime minister that we have to look to the future," said Merkel after they met. "We have agreed that we'll obviously be cooperating very, very closely with the new government."

The post-war expulsions have been a constant political issue for decades, particularly in Bavaria state, the home to large numbers of expellees and their descendants, who continue to demand amends.

Bavaria's state premier, Horst Seehofer, said in May he will use an upcoming visit to Prague to ask for the repeal of a 1945 decree that ordered the ethnic Germans out. Merkel said only that she would be glad if a visit took place.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Necas warned that the 1945 decree could not be the sole topic of the Bavarian's talks.

"If it's just going to be about the decree, I would not see any sense in having such a visit," he said.