Newly elected Chancellor Angela Merkel opened her first working session Thursday with her new Cabinet, and was expected to immediately get down to policy issues. On the agenda were tax and budgetary matters and Germany's participation in a European Union mission to police the border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which is hoped will help foster peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Merkel was to travel to London later in the day for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair. Merkel took over from former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Tuesday. After her conservative Christian Democratic Union performed far worse than expected in September's election, she was forced into an unwieldy alliance with Schroeder's Social Democrats, who took half the Cabinet positions in her new government, according to a report of the Associated Press.
