Merkel in Paris to honour WWI dead

PARIS (AFP) – President Nicolas Sarkozy welcomed Chancellor Angela Merkel to Paris Wednesday to honour the fallen of World War 1, the first time a German leader has taken part in a French Armistice Day parade.

They were due to rekindle the flame on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in a symbolic appearance intended to signal a new step in Franco-German relations.

The event came just two days after Sarkozy visited Berlin to attend along with other European leaders celebrations marking the the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

German leaders have attended Armistice Day events in France before -- most notably when chancellor Helmut Kohl took president Francois Mitterrand's hand in Verdun, the scene of one of the fiercest battles of the 1914-18 war.

But Merkel's visit Wednesday will be the first time a German leader has attended the Paris ceremonies marking the surrender of Germany after four years of trench warfare that left millions dead.

The two leaders were due to observe a short moment of silence at the Arc de Triomphe, flanked by soldiers from a Franco-German Brigade and officers from both countries' armed forces.

The silence -- at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month -- marks the moment 91 years ago when the guns fell silent across Europe after Germany signed an Armistice Treaty with its Allied foes.

Sarkozy and Merkel were then each due to make a short speech after rekindling the flame at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Relations between the two leaders were strained last year over what the French president saw as Germany's slow reaction to the global economic crisis.

But in recent months they have improved, and late last month Merkel flew to Paris for dinner with Sarkozy just hours after German lawmakers confirmed her return to office at the head of a new right-wing coalition.

Sarkozy said this week he wanted to make November 11 "a day of French-German reconciliation in order to build a shared future."

"As our friends the Germans celebrate twenty years of their reunification, it seemed to me that the time had come to join with Angela Merkel in Paris to together commemorate the suffering and to honour the memory of the combatants and celebrate the peace of which they dreamed in the bottom of their trenches," he said in a statement.

The last French veteran of World War I, an Italian immigrant who lied about his age to join the Foreign Legion and fight in the trenches, died last year aged 110.

Lazare Ponticelli was the last of more than eight million men who fought under French colours in the war that tore Europe apart.

Much of the fighting, which left around 10 million dead, happened in northern France and was characterised by horrific trench warfare.

Far from being "The War to End All Wars", the so-called Great War merely set the tone for the 20th century's litany of brutality, although in terms of sheer mass killing on the battlefield it has rarely been equalled since.