President Bush (web|news|bio) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both want to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but right now, they're standing on opposite sides of a revolving door. He's on his way out of office. She's trying to stay in. Bush is eager to resolve the nuclear standoff with Tehran before his presidency ends. In talks with Merkel on Wednesday, and with other European leaders later in the week, Bush will be coaxing them to stand in solidarity against Iran and embrace tougher sanctions if the country doesn't stop its uranium enrichment program. Global warming, Afghanistan and relations with Russia also were expected topics at Bush's meeting with Merkel at Schloss Meseberg, an elegant guest house of the German government about 50 miles north of Berlin.

Bush has close ties with Merkel, and has hosted her at his Texas ranch. But their relationship hit a bump at a recent NATO summit in Romania when they split over whether to give Georgia and Ukraine a path to membership in the alliance.

The two were all smiles, though, when the president arrived by helicopter at Schloss Meseberg to attend a social dinner Tuesday evening. As he and his wife, Laura, walked across a cobblestone plaza, a reporter asked him what he liked best about Germany. "The people," Bush said, "followed by the countryside."

Merkel and Bush likely engaged in more than small talk inside.

Before they agree to implement stiffer sanctions against Iran, Europeans want to see what happens when the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, visits Iran within days and offers a package of incentives in exchange for stopping its enrichment program. The offer, an updated version of one that Iran ignored a few years ago, was developed by the United States, along with Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China.

Following Bush's final US-EU summit Tuesday in Kranj, Slovenia, the leaders issued a joint declaration that said the United States and Europe "are ready to supplement those (previous) sanctions with additional measures" if Iran does not halt enrichment. It also said they would "work together ... to take steps to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism."

It was unclear whether this second pledge meant Europeans had signed on for the kind of harsh measures the U.S. favors, such as prohibiting business with Iranian banks, or merely represented a repeat of previous calls for closer monitoring of dealings with them.

Bush's campaign for stronger sanctions has been bolstered by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Since beginning an investigation last year into allegations of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, the IAEA has asked in vain for substantive explanations for what seem to be draft plans to refit missiles with nuclear warheads, explosives tests that could be used to develop a nuclear detonator, military and civilian nuclear links and a drawing showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.

Iran, which claims its nuclear program is geared toward generating electricity not bombs, remains defiant, saying the evidence from the U.S. and other purportedly backing the allegations was fabricated.

Aboard Air Force One on Tuesday en route to Germany, national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters that the president's strategy was to make sure that all the European partners see eye to eye on the latest offer. At the same time, he said the parties need to agree that if the Iranians reject the offer being presented by Solana, then "we need to turn up the pressure."

Agreeing to stiffer sanctions, such as taking further steps to squeeze Iran's financial and business dealings, would be difficult for Merkel.

Under Merkel, Germany has cut back trade with Iran; German exports to Iran shrank to $5 billion in 2007 from $6.8 billion in 2006. Washington wants Germany to do even more, but Merkel faces a tough re-election campaign next year and has to answer to German businesses that don't want to cut financial ties to Iran.

"German business is not happy," said Julianne Smith, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is going to have political ramifications. She's only going to go so far."

Merkel and other European leaders want to convince the president this week that they take the threat from Iran seriously. At the same time, they seek to restrain hard-liners who want the United States or Israel to use military force against Iran.

Verbal threats and political tensions have increased between Iran and Israel after Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said in 2005 that Israel one day would be "wiped off the map," an assertion he repeated last week.

Earlier this month, Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel will have "no choice" but to attack Iran if it doesn't halt its nuclear program. A spokeswoman for Mofaz later said he was expressing his own opinion, not the government's.

Merkel and other European leaders want to give current diplomatic efforts more time - something Bush doesn't have.