AS the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, prepares to visit Bonn tomorrow, the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, predicted yesterday that the process of European integration would take a decisive step forward at next week's summit in Dublin.
At a meeting with the diplomatic corps in Bonn, Dr Kohl said the Franco German alliance would once again provide the motor for progress on European integration.
At a three hour meeting in Paris on Tuesday, the Chancellor attempted to agree a joint strategy on European Monetary Union with President Jacques Chirac of France. The two men meet again next Monday in Nuremberg to finalise their joint strategy before the Dublin summit.
A German government spokesman, Mr Peter Hausmann, yesterday denied there was any difference of opinion between France and Germany on the future of the single currency. But a number of senior French figures have protested in recent days against the German blueprint of a euro as strong as the deutschmark.
The president of the French employers' association, Mr Jean Gandois, said yesterday that the new currency must be strong enough to be credible, but if it were too strong, the financial markets would overvalue it against the dollar.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, said the gaps in the Maastricht treaty must be filled in Dublin to clear the way for a new agreement at the Inter Governmental Conference in Amsterdam next June.
Dr Kohl reaffirmed his determination to oversee the deepening of ties within the existing EU, as well as the Union's widening to include former communist countries in central and eastern Europe. But he added that any eastward expansion of the EU and NATO must be effected in such a way that neither Russia nor Ukraine felt threatened.
Mr Bruton's meeting with Dr Kohl in Bonn tomorrow is part of a round of visits to EU capitals in advance of next week's summit.
