Europe must redouble efforts, says Angela Merkel

Berlin Chancellor Angela Merkel said euro-area downgrades by Standard & Poor's reinforce Germany's stance that European leaders must redouble their efforts to resolve the debt crisis as governments prepare to sell more debt this week.

"The decision confirms my conviction that we have a long way ahead of us before investor confidence returns," Merkel told reporters on Saturday in Kiel. Resolving the crisis is a "longer process" that will take more than a few months, Merkel said in comments broadcast on Sunday by Deutschlandfunk radio.

Germany was left with the euro-area's only stable AAA rating as S&P stripped France and Austria of their top credit grades, citing "insufficient" policy steps to combat the debt crisis.

The decision to include France among the nine sovereign downgrades was "disappointing" even if expected, French prime minister Francois Fillon said, noting that the market response in advance of the announcement late on January 13 "was muted."

The S&P verdict on France shouldn't be "dramatized" or "politicized," Fillon said at a news conference in Paris on Saturday.