Berlin (dpa) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel travels to Washington Thursday, intent on brainstorming solutions to the Ukraine crisis and gaining US assurances that spying on its allies will be minimized.

However, the chances of a definitive solution on either topic is minimal.

Aside from her meeting Friday with US President Barack Obama, Merkel is also expected to head to the Interational Monetary Fund (IMF) and give a keynote address at the US Chamber of Commerce focusing on the future of US-EU trade talks. Her visit starts Thursday with a meeting with US legislators at her ambassadors residence.

The visit comes as the war of words between the West and Russia over the future of Ukraine has increased in intensity and days after a new round of Western sanctions was imposed.

Russia continues to deny it is backing pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine even as Western leaders appeal to it for help in freeing a group of kidnapped Western military observers. Merkel made a new appeal Thursday.

German officials have not ruled out further action against Russia in hopes of forcing cooperation on an agreement reached last week in Geneva that sought a peaceful way out of the crisis.

Merkel also plans to talk to IMF Director Christine Lagarde about possible IMF aid to the former Soviet republic.

Large segments of the German population will also expect Merkel to bring up the question of US National Security Agency (NSA) spying, which was brought to light last year after revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden, currently in asylum in Russia.

Germans were incensed last year at reports that the NSA had spied on Merkels personal mobile phone, and she is under pressure to get some concessions in this area even though the chances of the US disavowing spying are slim.

It is her first trip to the United States since the Snowden revelations. Merkels government has warned that concrete results are unlikely and stressed that the Ukraine crisis needs to take priority.

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Ukraine crisis, NSA spying on agenda as Merkel heads to Washington

Over the years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has addressed Congress and been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on her US visits. This time, however, her visit is overshadowed by crises, and she faces an ally that has become a stranger.

NSA spying and the crisis in Ukraine are exacting issues for both countries. The Ukraine issue in particular has the potential to push Germany and the US further apart, according to Nile Gardiner from the Heritage Foundation think tank: "There's a big divide between Berlin and Washington with regard to how to treat the Russian problem."

Germany and a number of European countries have been pursuing "a policy of appeasement towards Russia and that's largely due to the economic dependence in terms of energy supply," the Europe expert told DW.

Karen Donfried, the new head of the German Marshall Fund transatlantic organization, however, points out that German-US coordination has been very good so far. "Europe has important trade and energy ties with Russia, but even so, they, too, want to put pressure on Russia," the former top advisor on Europe to President Obama says.

Stand united

"It's very important that Putin notices this solidarity." Donfried says.

Karen Donfried served as a special asisstant to President Obama

The Ukraine crisis is at the very top of Angela Merkel's agenda in Washington. The German Chancellor is not only bound to encounter completely different assessments and expectations of Europe and Germany, but also a president who is under considerable domestic pressure to toughen his stance on Russia.

"This meeting is incredibly timely and important," says Heather Conley of the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The two leaders are meeting "at a time when the West's policy toward Russia has come to a dramatic end and a new policy needs to be rebuilt," the think tank's expert on Germany says. "Germany's role in shaping that new policy is going to be critical for its success."

Reluctant Europeans

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Tough challenges for a troubled friendship

Obama and Merkel could try to patch up their NSA spat so they can get on with the pressing issue of Ukraine. But the German chancellor is unlikely to get the "No-Spy" promise from Obama that the German public has been pushing for.

Washington (dpa) - Germans expect Chancellor Angela Merkel to press US President Barack Obama on the topic of NSA spying when they meet Friday. But the White House is unlikely to give any ground.

Stephen Szabo, an expert on US-German affairs at the German-Marshall Fund think tank and director of its Transatlantic Academy, spoke to dpa about the first private face-to-face meeting between the two since the uproar over the NSA tapping of Merkels phone.

Szabo says the US-German relationship is in a bad state and the two leaders are working to patch it up. He does not expect a "No-Spy" deal to be announced, but thinks there may be some type of agreement in the works.

DPA: The White House has not provided many details about Merkels visit. What do you make of that?

SZABO: What I dont understand about this visit is why she is coming over unless they have something agreed. That would have to be on NSA, I would think, because shes getting a lot of political flak at home still for her position on this and I think she wants to close the gap with Obama.

DPA: What kind of overture do you think Obama could make?

SZABO: I think maybe hell make another statement ... He will certainly reassure her that theyre not bugging her phone, that thats stopped. I dont know if hell apologize but hell certainly make it clear that he regrets what was done and that it wont happen again in the future. I dont think theyll do a No Spy deal.

Thats why Im kind of puzzled by this visit. I dont see what hes going to give her that she can take back to Germany and say, "Look, I got this."

DPA: Any other issues you expect at the meeting?

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INTERVIEW «No-Spy» deal unlikely in Obama-Merkel talks, expert says By Pat Reber, dpa

For the first time since it emerged her mobile phone may have been monitored for years by the US, Angela Merkel is visiting the White House.

Ukraine will be the focus of the talks but the spying scandal is also set to loom large when the German Chancellor meets President Obama later on Friday.

Berlin is frustrated by Washingtons refusal to come clean about the full extent of its surveillance activities.

Annette Heuser, Executive Director of the Bertelsmann Foundation, an influential German-American think tank in Washington, spoke to euronews.

For the Americans, the NSA affair was just a little accident, whereas for the Germans it was a nuclear event, she said.

And now the Americans need to understand that the German government in general and the German Chancellor in particular are demanding answers to the long list of questions they have asked.

Despite the recent rocky patch, the German-American Friendship Garden in Washington,established by Ronald Reagan and Helmut Kohl in 1983, remains in full bloom.

Who knows maybe it could inspire the transatlantic partners to overcome their differences, heal wounds and reach a new understanding

US-German relations have gone from very close under Bill Clinton and Helmut Kohl to very bad under George W. Bush and Gerhard Schroeder, says our Washington correspondent Stefan Grobe.

Today Barack Obama and Angela Merkel still need to rebuild trust and warmth. Whether issues like Ukraine and the NSA scandal can allow that, remains to be seen.

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Merkel makes first White House visit since NSA spying scandal

U.S. press freedom has suffered its steepest decline in a decade due to the government's efforts to block reporting on the NSA spying scandal exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, obstruction of information, and the decimation of media diversity.(Photo: Ninja M. via flickr)

This is according to global index on media freedom (pdf) released Thursday by U.S.-based Freedom House.

Filed annually since the 1980s, the 2014 report finds that the U.S. suffered a "significant negative shift" from 2013: on a scale where countries are ranked from zero to 100, with lower numbers representing greater freedom, the U.S. dropped from 18 to 21 points.

"The U.S.'s score suffered its largest year-on-year decline in a decade," Jennifer Dunham, Senior Research Analyst at Freedom House, told Common Dreams. "In other years, the U.S. may have declined (or improved) one or two points, but never 3."

The report cites "attempts by the government to inhibit reporting on national security issues" as the number one reason for this plummet.

Factors include "government attempts to control official information flows, particularly concerning national securityrelated issues; the legal harassment of journalists with regard to protection of sources; and revelations of surveillance that included both the bulk collection of communications data by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the targeted wiretapping of media outlets."

Responding to the report, Betty Yu from the Center for Media Justice told Common Dreams, "In the U.S., the government has tried to suppress and downplay the severity of the Edward Snowden NSA revelations in the press. To many of us in the social justice movement, we know that surveillance and eavesdropping on communities of color and progressive movements is not new. But his revelations exposed that every person in the U.S. is being spied on. Fighting digital surveillance and the right to privacy is absolutely a freedom of the press issue. We need to be allowed to communicate and share information freely."

According to the report, "Ongoing challenges include the threat to media diversity stemming from poor economic conditions for the news industry. Researchers also slam the "limited willingness of high-level government officials to provide access and information to members of the press," including failure to respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests.

"Fighting digital surveillance and the right to privacy is absolutely a freedom of the press issue. We need to be allowed to communicate and share information freely." Betty Yu, Center for Media Justice

Yu says that the current fight to save the open internet ties directly to issues of media diversity and freedom: "Based on this report, countries with the greatest improvement in freedom of the press are those with a growing diversity in media ownership and access to online media outlets. This sheds light on the importance of having a unfettered and open Internet protected by net neutrality."

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Crackdown on National Security Reporting Tanked US Press Freedom: Report

Germany: NSA spying "unacceptable" says SPD
W/S [CUTAWAY] SPD press conference SOT. Social Democratic Party candidate for chancellor Peer Steinbrueck (speaking German): "About the first question, I am ...

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Germany: NSA spying "unacceptable" says SPD - Video

NSA Spying Panel 1
Rainey Reitman of Electronic Frontier Foundation speaks about the NSA.

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NSA Spying Panel 1 - Video

NSA Spying 2
Chris Conley of the ACLU discusses the NSA surveillance program.

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NSA Spying 2 - Video