BERLIN There are things about the new British prime minister David Cameron that make Angela Merkel sad. Then there are other things he does that leave her baffled. His decision to abandon the alliance with her party in the European parliament, for example.

Or his insistence that Britain will not be contributing to a trillion-dollar fund to save the euro, even though the currency's collapse would be a disaster for Britain.

The German chancellor has been less than pleased with what she saw of Cameron in opposition, so now he has his work cut out if he wants to develop a meaningful relationship with the east German pastor's daughter.

On Friday Europe's most powerful politician told Britain's new prime minister that she wanted to get on well with him, but she would not be mincing her words. “This is going to be a very honest and candid partnership,” Merkel said after her first 90-minute meeting with Cameron since he became PM.

Merkel rolled out the red carpet for Cameron in Berlin. And he did not put a foot wrong as he inspected the troops, turning and bowing at the right point. “Hmmm, no mistake. Very impressive. Most of them pass that point and forget,” said a veteran observer of German protocol.

Then Cameron disappeared into the “washing machine”, Berliners' nickname for the white concrete and glass construction that is the office of the chancellor and a symbol of the new Germany.

On Thursday night in Paris, Cameron struck a bad note by being unable to resist a hint of schadenfreude in the darkest hour of the euro's 11-year life. “I always had concerns about the euro on a fundamental level,” he told President Nicolas Sarkozy. This told-you-so moment in Paris was compounded by Cameron's use of the v-word yesterday alongside Merkel.

It might play well with the Europhobic tendency on his backbenches. Or on the late night British television news. It might also be construed as a diplomatic gaffe.

Correctly, if pointedly, Cameron declared that the support of all 27 EU countries was needed to change the Lisbon treaty to stiffen the rules for the single currency, something Merkel stressed might be necessary to revive the euro.

“The United Kingdom has a veto. Those are important points to understand,” Cameron declared.

Merkel, standing alongside, allowed herself an enigmatic smile. It seemed a needless and premature threat on his very first steps as prime minister on the European stage.

His timing could hardly be worse, through no fault of his. His first foray abroad, to Paris and Berlin, comes at a time of unusual frailty in Europe. Like Britain, Europe is living on tick. The euro is in meltdown.

Its leaders are squabbling, mired in anguished debate over European purpose while the rest of the world moves on. It is the most difficult time in the EU since the collapse of communism and German reunification, with the huge difference that the situation is now depressed and pessimistic in contrast to the air of possibility and optimism when the Berlin Wall fell.

By opting for the two capitals as his first foreign trip, Cameron sent a signal of engagement and opened a new phase in the menage a trois of Berlin, Paris and London - a troika of conservative leaders playing one off against the other two in a shifting political drama. Personal chemistry matters. It is notoriously bad between Merkel and Sarkozy, providing Cameron with an opening. Coming to Berlin to speak of British vetos may be less than productive.

“David's very keen to be very involved in Europe,” said a Downing Street source. The prime minister joked that he sought Merkel's advice on how to run a coalition.

“That's something very new for a British prime minister at least,” replied Merkel. Like Cameron, she leads a conservative coalition with liberals. But it is arguable whether Cameron learned anything useful since her coalition is slumping in the polls.

“The UK has always added a dash of pragmatic Euroscepticism. Sometimes that is a problem for us, but sometimes it is a good thing,” said Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister.

“With regard to the financial crisis, we now have a real disagreement. We are in the process of drawing certain lessons from this crisis, that certain forms of financial market activity have to be changed.

And there the UK and America are the most hesitant, there is real disagreement. These disagreements will continue.”—Dawn-Guardian News Service