Angela Merkel has steadily emerged as the European leader to watch. Since she moved into the German chancellor’s office last November, the physicist from East Germany has demonstrated a real skill in effective, low-key diplomacy. It worked in Europe, where she brokered a key compromise on the EU budget last January; it worked in New York when she became the first German chancellor to address an annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee, and it seems to be working in Washington.

During last week’s visit to the US, Merkel’s basic message was that the best chance of persuading Iran to drop its nuclear programme is patient, step-by-step diplomacy, including direct talks between US and Tehran. That makes sense to us, especially since she came to US a week after she met Putin and Hu Jintao, two leaders most resistant to any sanctions against Iran. Merkel is not ambivalent about Iran’s nukes: Under no circumstances, she says, can Tehran get the weapon. Nor is she against UN Security Council action against Iran.

But she is clear in arguing that threatening action aga-inst Iran only makes matters more difficult. These are wise words. Bush should understand that on Iran, she does represent a far broader consensus than ever existed on Iraq.