Angela Merkel has urged Europe to take in more refugees and said Islam is ‘not the source of terror’.
Speaking at the Munich security conference the German chancellor said Europe has an obligation to take displaced refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Mrs Merkel, who has been critical of a U.S. ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, also underlined that Islam itself was not the source of terrorism.
She added that battling extremism can only be done in cooperation with Muslim countries and vowed to work closely with Vladimir Putin’s Russia to fight ISIS in the Middle East.
Europe’s ties with Russia are challenging, but it is important to work with them in the fight against Islamist terrorism, she said.
Germany has taken in more than one million refugees displaced by the war in Syria but the country’s policy came under particular scrutiny after the Berlin Christmas market massacre last year in which 12 people died.