"These things have to be coordinated with each other."

Merkel, making her first appearance as German chancellor at the Davos meeting, made a strong plea for a successful outcome to the Doha world trade round. She said this would require fair access for developing countries to world markets.

She also said the world needed to go further to develop common standards in areas like social and environmental policy, a suggestion some developing countries view as disguised trade protectionism and have in the past resisted.

"I think bilateral agreements between individual groups in the world ... will not get us very far," she said. "We have to learn to reach agreements with each other in a global world."