U.S. intelligence has stepped up eavesdropping on hundreds of key figures in Germany, including a government minister, after Chancellor Angela Merkel was dropped as a direct target, a German report said Sunday.

Bild am Sonntag newspaper said that 320 political and business leaders in Germany were being monitored by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.

Germany is Britain's closest partner in reforming the European Union, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday ahead of talks this week between the leaders of the two countries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday is to visit British Prime Minister David Cameron, who will be pushing his agenda for changing the way the 28-member bloc works, and repatriating powers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Sunday that Ukraine's "territorial integrity" must be ensured, the German government spokesman said, as the U.S. said it was in no one's interest to see Ukraine break apart.

Merkel spoke by phone with Putin and "both agreed that Ukraine must quickly get a government capable of acting and its territorial integrity must be preserved," Steffen Seibert said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday she will fully support efforts by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to relaunch the Middle East peace process during her upcoming visit to Israel.

"We need, as soon as possible, a stable two-country solution, with a Jewish state of Israel and at the same time a state for the Palestinians," Merkel said in her weekly podcast.

Germany and France on Saturday urged the Ukrainian government and the opposition to respect a peace deal agreed a day earlier to end the ex-Soviet country's worst crisis since independence.

"It is now up to the two sides in the conflict -- the government as well as the opposition -- to stick to what was agreed and to begin building a relationship of trust," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement, as the regime of President Viktor Yanukovych appeared close to collapse after months of protests.

A Bulgarian regional court said on Friday it had agreed to extradite a man wanted on terror charges in Germany.

Sulaiman Sidiqi, who was born in Kabul and has dual Afghan-German nationality, is suspected of being a member of "a terrorist organization", the Plovdiv Regional Court said in a statement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will next week address MPs from both houses of Britain's parliament and hold talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, her spokesman said Friday.

Merkel is due to make the speech to parliament Thursday, Steffen Seibert said, describing the rare move for a foreign leader as an "honor".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama joined with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to call for an urgent political solution to the deadly crisis gripping Ukraine.

"The chancellor and the presidents have reached an agreement to call for a political solution to the crisis in Ukraine as quickly as possible and for an end to the bloodbath," the German government said in a statement released after phone calls between the Western leaders and Putin, who have been at odds over Ukraine's future.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday to accept EU help in his talks with the opposition and condemned the latest violence.

Merkel spoke by phone with Yanukovych as fierce clashes in Kiev claimed at least 27 lives, just as EU envoys were holding crisis talks with the embattled president.

Germany has arrested three suspected former SS guards of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz in a series of home raids across three states, prosecutors said Thursday.

Israel's Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center praised the police action and said prosecutions should be expedited "to maximize justice while still possible".