Greek president urges speedy talks with Berlin on bid for World War II reparations

German President Joachim Gauck, places a wreath at the monument of the Unknown Soldier during his visit to Athens, on Thursday, March 6, 2014. Gauck is on a visit that will seek to lay to rest some of the ghosts of a brutal WWII Nazi occupation, amid renewed anti-German sentiment stoked by Greece's financial crisis. His three-day visit will include a speech Friday at a site where German army troops massacred 92 villagers near the northeastern town of Ioannina, and a meeting with the town's Jewish community. (AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis) (The Associated Press)

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An army officer watches the preparations for Friday's visit of German and Greek Presidents, at the monument with the names of villagers who German army troops massacred, in the village of Ligiades near the northwestern town of Ioannina, Greece, on Thursday, March 6, 2014. German President Joachim Gauck's three-day visit to the country will include a speech Friday at the site where German army troops massacred 92 villagers near the northeastern town of Ioannina, and a meeting with the town's Jewish community. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) (The Associated Press)

An army officer looks at the monument with the names of villagers who German army troops massacred, in the village of Ligiades near the northwestern town of Ioannina, Greece, on Thursday, March 6, 2014. German President Joachim Gauck's three-day visit to the country will include a speech Friday at the site where German army troops massacred 92 villagers near the northeastern town of Ioannina, and a meeting with the town's Jewish community. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) (The Associated Press)

ATHENS, Greece – Greece's president has called for talks as soon as possible with Berlin on long-rejected Greek claims for wartime reparations, during a meeting with his German counterpart.

Karolos Papoulias insisted at a joint news conference Thursday that Greece has never dropped its claims to reparations for the brutal 1941-44 German occupation during World War II.

But German President Joachim Gauck stuck to Berlin's longstanding argument that the issue has been settled.

Gauck arrived in Athens on Wednesday for a three-day visit that combines talking to Greek politicians with efforts to bring closure to WWII wounds as anti-German sentiment runs high in austerity-weary Greece.

On Friday, Gauck will visit the northwestern village of Ligiades, where German troops massacred dozens of villagers in 1943, in reprisal for a partisan attack.