Merkel to address parliament about market crisis

Chancellor Angela Merkel is to address the German parliament about the financial market crisis this afternoon.

Mrs Merkel cancelled a previously planned trip to Belgium in order to speak the lower house.

Merkel’s government on Sunday pledged to guarantee all private bank accounts in Germany. It also put together a new rescue plan for distressed lender Hypo Real Estate AG – the first German blue-chip company to require a bail-out.

Mrs Merkel said yesterday that Europeans must be “coherent” in tackling the financial crisis but also stressed that every country must live up to its own responsibilities. She has opposed a massive European-wide bail-out of the kind passed in the US.