France's newly appointed president arrives in Berlin for his first meeting with Germany's chancellor
6.47pm: It's the most eagerly awaited dinner date on the international stage for some time, where the debate over growth versus austerity is expected to take centre-stage.
Hours after taking over as France's president, François Hollande has arrived in Berlin for talks on Europe's debt crisis with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
In what many are hoping is not an ill-omen, the Falcon 7X aircraft which he boarded earlier was struck by lightning and had to return to the Villacoublay air base outside Paris as a precaution.
Hollande and his entourage were transferred to another aircraft, a Falcon 900, and took off shortly thereafter.
As the future of the Eurozone hangs in the balance, we're going to bring you full coverage of the first top level meeting between the two current leaders of the Eurozone's Franco-German engine.
