(ANSA-AFP) - PARIS, DEC 10 - French President Emmanuel Macron hailed a "convergence of views" with new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during their first meeting as leaders in Paris on Friday.

Addressing Scholz as "dear Olaf" and with the informal "tu" pronoun in French, Macron said he had seen "a convergence of views, a desire to have our countries work together, and a firm and determined belief in Europe, which I knew already, which we will need in the months and years ahead." Scholz, a centrist Social Democrat, heads a disparate new coalition of ecologist Greens and business-friendly Free Democrats, but their joint commitment to strengthening Europe's "strategic sovereignty" has raised hopes in Paris. Macron laid out an ambitious agenda Thursday for a "Europe that is powerful in the world" during France's time as the rotating president of the 27-member Council of the European Union in the first half of next year. (ANSA-AFP).