On Jan. 1 Germany took over the rotating presidency of the European Union, embarking on a six-month drive to revive the expanded bloc's stricken constitution and strengthen its ties to energy-rich Russia and Central Asia.

Berlin also began its yearlong turn at the head of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Holding both posts simultaneously also will allow Germany to focus minds on combating climate change, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

The planned EU constitution has been in political limbo since French and Dutch voters rejected it in referendums in 2004.

But German political leaders are among its strongest proponents, arguing that the charter is vital to streamline decision-making in a union that grew to 27 members with the Jan. 1 admission of Bulgaria and Romania.

"Only a united Europe can take on the challenges of globalization - international trade as well as violence, terror and war," Merkel said in a New Year's address broadcast on German television. "A divided Europe is condemned to failure."

Merkel has pledged to present a timetable for its revival before Berlin's EU presidency ends in June with the goal of introducing the constitution before European elections in 2009.

German leaders want central points in the original charter - including restrictions on national vetoes and the establishment of an EU foreign minister - preserved.

Still, they acknowledge that major decisions will have to wait until France takes its turn in the EU presidency in 2008.

Among Berlin's other aims for its EU presidency is solving a trade dispute between Russia and Poland that is holding up negotiations on a new partnership agreement between the EU and Russia.

The issue is sensitive amid concern in many EU nations that they are becoming too dependent on Moscow for oil and gas.

Similar interests are driving Berlin's desire to brush up the bloc's relations with Central Asia, whose energy reserves are coveted by rising powers China and India as well as Europe.

Berlin plans to underline the overreaching goals and values of the EU at a summit in Berlin in March to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

A G8 summit is planned for June in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, in the former communist east. (Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)