Merkel meets Livni on second day of Israel visit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel continued her two-day visit to Israel Wednesday, meeting opposition leader Tzipi Livni.

She was later scheduled to meet with Israeli President Shimon Pers, before receiving an honorary doctorate at Tel Aviv University in the afternoon, DPA reported.

The pre-planned visit came amidst Israeli fears over Middle East stability as unrest swept Egypt, something Merkel echoed.

"We know of course that Egypt has played a very positive role for Israel in particular in the many efforts to establish peace, as well as a stabilizing role," she told a news conference in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu too referred to the "dramatic events" in neighbouring Egypt and said he was worried Islamists would take over.

"Our most serious concern is that in a situation of rapid revolutions (...), what could emerge, and has already emerged in a number of countries, including Iran, are repressive radical Islamist regimes," he said.

"We don't want to revert to the bad old days," he said in reference to the period before Egypt and Israel made peace in 1979.

Earlier, 10 members of Merkel's cabinet and 12 of Netanyahu's held a joint session - the third of its kind since 2008, when the governments of Israel and Germany met together in Jerusalem for the first time as Israel celebrated its 60the anniversary.

A joint cabinet statement said the consultations aimed to "solidify the unique relationship" between the two countries, "while recognizing Germany's awareness of its historic responsibility towards Israel," 66 years since the Holocaust. The sides agreed to hold the next joint session in German in 2012.