Angela Merkel will run for fourth term, senior member of her party says

'She is absolutely determined, willing, and ready to contribute to strengthen the international liberal order'

Angela Merkel was elected Chancellor of Germany in 2005 (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Angela Merkel will run for a fourth term as German Chancellor, a senior member of her party has said.

"She will run for chancellor," Norbert Roettgen, of the Christian Democratic Union, told CNN.

"She is absolutely determined, willing, and ready to contribute to strengthen the international liberal order," he said. "But we can't see the chancellor or Germany as last man standing."

When asked whether Ms Merkel desired to hold "the liberal order, in the trans-Atlantic area, together," Mr Roettgen said: "The Chancellor is a cornerstone of this political concept of the West as acting as a global player.

"So she will run, and she will act as a resonsible leader."

He added: "But it would be impossible to rely only on one person. We need the West, and the West is indispensable.

"And this of course means fundamentally and indispensably also the participation and contribution of the strongest part of the West, and this is the United States of America."

Speaking after Donald Trump was voted US president, Ms Merkel offered "close cooperation" with Mr Trump, because Germany and the US are "joined by common values — democracy, freedom, respect for the law and human dignity, regardless of skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political beliefs".

On Tuesday, she suggested she is prepared to discuss the parameters of free movement of people in the EU as Britain prepares for Brexit.

She said the EU could not divide its four freedoms — movement of goods, capital, people and services — to allow Britain to restrict immigration while retaining tariff-free access to the market of close to 500 million people, but opened the possibility for future discussions.