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US First Lady Laura Bush said Friday she and President George W. Bush admired Chancellor Angela Merkel and got a taste of her refreshing frankness during their visit to Germany this week.
"I like her very, very much, and this trip, for the President and me to have the opportunity to be in her home constituency, has given us a chance to get to know her in a more personal way," Laura Bush told German public television ARD in an interview.
"I admire her very much. I think it's terrific that Germany has a woman chancellor, and both my husband and I really like her."
Asked whether the United States was ready for its first female leader, she quipped "Certainly, I think so -- a Republican woman."
She said she and the president had been impressed by their tour of Merkel's electoral district in the former communist east, where they had a chance to learn about life behind the former Iron Curtain.
She said she had been aware, however, that the visit was controversial among some Germans, including some ex-communist members of the state government where they were touring who joined small anti-war protests.
"Well, I hope that people understand that America is a friend of Germany. We all in the United States are concerned about anti-Americanism," she said.
"Because we feel like -- the people of the United States -- that we've stood with Germany since World War II, every time Germany needed us, we also wonder if Germans stand with the United States, and we hope they do."
But she said she wanted to thank the people she and the president had met during their visit with Merkel to the Baltic coast city of Stralsund and at a wild boar roast in the nearby village of Trinwillershagen for their "hospitality".
When asked what was "fascinating" about Merkel, as the president has described the chancellor in the past, Laura Bush said it was Merkel's straight talk.
"Well, I think because she's so frank -- she tells you exactly what she thinks, which really, for two world leaders, gives them the opportunity to have a real dialogue and a real frank discussion about many, many issues, and I think that's constructive," she said.
The Bushes left Germany Friday for Saint Petersburg to attend the Group of Eight summit of world powers this weekend.
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AFP 141049 GMT 07 06
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