(ANSA-AFP) - ROME, 10 LUG - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged US President Donald Trump Thursday to "stay with us" Europeans in maintaining support for Ukraine -- while calling out Slovakia for holding up new EU sanctions on Russia. At an international conference in Rome, Merz offered a message "to Washington DC and to President Donald Trump: stay with us and stay with the Europeans, we are on the same page and we are looking for a stable political order in this world". He added a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying: "We will not give up." Merz was speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, a two-day gathering intended to mobilise political and private sector support for Ukraine's reconstruction, even as the war with Russia rages. (ANSA-AFP).