By Mark Mardell BBC Europe Editor

A relieved President Chirac receives Mrs Merkel in Paris

Despite its economic woes, Germany is Europe's most important economy. It is the biggest country in the European Union and so the most powerful. It doesn't always get its way but it is a hugely powerful ally.

So the French were relieved that Mrs Merkel didn't give into siren voices who were urging her to make her first foreign trip to Poland's capital. Warsaw got moved down the list and she kept with the tradition of putting Paris first.

Less than 24 hours after officially taking up the office of Chancellor, she was having her hand air-kissed by President Chirac, an uncertain manoeuvre for a man so certain of himself. But the French have been concerned about noises from Berlin that the relationship was about to be weakened.

She politely agreed with him that the Franco-German relationship was crucial, but mentioned it in the same breath as economic reform. It is true, she said, that the French and German social traditions meant they had to be the driving forces behind Europe's answer to globalisation, but the emphasis was firmly on economics rather than sentiment.

In Brussels, Mrs Merkel repeated her message that a strong Europe needed economic reform and needed to be able to agree measures like the services directive, which is bitterly opposed by much of the left in Parliament and traditionally by countries which worry a great deal about the threat of globalisation to their social model. This will be music to the ears of President Barroso, who is a right-wing reformer himself.

Can Mrs Merkel help Mr Barroso see eye to eye with Mr Blair?

Even more fascinating was her approach to the European Union's budget crisis. Barroso used the platform of a news conference with the new chancellor to hold her country up as a shining example of a country that paid its way. He explicitly said Britain held the key to the budget crisis and should take note.

That is not very coded code for "Give up the rebate, Tony". So I asked Mrs Merkel what her message about the rebate would be when she got to London.

She replied that economic reform was important and the budget was a complex thing and shouldn't be boiled down to one issue. Not a key at all, then.

Which is odd. Just about every representative from every EU nation I speak to, and everybody in the commission tells me it does boil down to the British rebate. These were of course the cautious and diplomatic words of the world's newest leader just before meeting the ultra-experienced Tony Blair on his own ground.

But she also has a reputation as someone who takes time analysing a range of facts before coming to an un-ideological conclusion.