“We have a few difficulties yet to overcome,” Merkel said. She characterized her conversations with the president as “very helpful” — though, she added, “there are differences on what kind of balance to strike” between security and protecting privacy. “That will require further discussion” between the United States and Germany, and with the rest of Europe, she said.

Obama disputed reports that his administration had offered and then reneged on a no-spy agreement with Germany. “It’s not quite accurate,” Obama said. Rather, he said, there are procedures and partnerships that are built up between the United States and intelligence agencies around the world to have a better understanding of how surveillance programs work, and those practices are being revisited in light of the development of new technologies. Between the United States and Germany, he acknowledged, “there are still some gaps to be worked through.”

( Also on POLITICO: What Obama should say on Ukraine)

The two leaders spent much of their meeting discussing the situation in Ukraine, pointing to the elections that loom at the end of the month as a key test for Russia. “Our only interest is for Ukraine to be able to make its own decisions. And the last thing we want is disorder and chaos in the center of Europe,” Obama said. He also urged Germans following the story from Russia’s perspective to “stay focused on the facts and what’s happened on the ground” and to keep in mind that “there just has not been the kind of honesty and credibility about the situation” from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Obama reiterated his warnings that more sanctions could be on the way and that they would likely be broad-based across sectors of the Russian economy. “The goal is not to punish Russia. The goal is to give them an incentive to choose the better course, and that is to resolve these issues diplomatically,” he said.

The president also spoke on this week’s botched execution in Oklahoma, which he described as “deeply troubling.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama: Okla. execution ‘troubling')

The incident “highlights significant problems with death penalty,” he said, problems that he’s asked Attorney General Eric Holder to further examine in an analysis.

“I’ve said in the past that there are certain circumstances in which a crime is so terrible that the application of the death penalty may be appropriate,” Obama said, citing mass killings and the killings of children. “But I’ve also said that in the application of the death penalty in this country, we’ve seen significant problems. Racial bias, an uneven application of the death penalty, situations in which there were individuals on death row who later on were discovered to have been innocent because of exculpatory evidence.”