Germany, France to work closely on growth: Merkel

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and France understand their joint responsibility for Europe and must offer joint ideas at an EU summit next month on reviving economic growth, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday after talks with France‘s new president.

“It will be very important that Germany and France present their ideas together at this summit and work closely together to prepare it,” Merkel told a joint news conference with Francois Hollande, hours after he took the oath of office.

Merkel also said the two leaders wanted Greece to remain in the euro zone and said they were ready to help the crisis-stricken country to return to economic growth.

(Reporting by Stephen Brown, Noah Barkin and Annika Breidthardt, writing by Gareth Jones)