Angela Merkel will seek fourth term as chancellor

Germany's Angela Merkel has confirmed she wants to run for a fourth term as chancellor in next year's election.

The 62-year-old conservative became Germany's first female head of government in 2005.

She told a press conference: "I thought about this for an endlessly long time.

"The decision for a fourth term is - after 11 years in office - anything but trivial."

She has already served 11 years as chancellor of Europe's biggest economy.

If Mrs Merkel wins in 2017 and serves the entire four-year term, she would match her one-time mentor Helmut Kohl's post-war record of 16 years in office.

Mrs Merkel is widely seen as a stabilising force in Europe amid uncertainty after Britain's vote to leave the European Union and as a bastion of Western liberal values after the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.