Biden, Germany's Scholz to discuss Ukraine and Israel in White House meeting

By Jeff Mason and Andreas Rinke

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will lend European support for U.S. President Joe Biden's efforts to get more funding for Ukraine during a White House meeting on Friday that is also expected to touch on the conflict in the Middle East.

Scholz is scheduled to meet with U.S. business executives before joining Biden at the White House for talks about the two crises that are dominating world politics.

No joint news conference was planned.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday the two leaders would "reaffirm their strong support for Ukraine and finding a way to continue to help Ukraine."

The U.S. Senate on Thursday advanced a $95.34 billion bill that includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after Republicans blocked compromise legislation that had included reforms to immigration policy.

The White House has sounded warnings for months that a failure by lawmakers to provide aid to Kyiv would hurt its ability to fight Russia two years after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The European Union approved a four-year, 50 billion-euro ($54 billion) facility for Ukraine last week.

Ukraine, which aspires to join the NATO military alliance, relies on Western nations for military support and financial backing.

Kirby said Biden and Scholz also were likely to discuss the situation in Gaza and "what together we can do as ... strong allies to continue to make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and humanitarian assistance gets into the people that need it."

They were also likely to discuss the threats by Houthi rebels to international shipping in the Red Sea, he said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andreas Rinke; Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Matthew Lewis)