Brisbane

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that she has "very good German reasons" for convincing the UK to stay in the European Union, saying that the EU needs Britain's innovation and its broad global perspective.

The UK is an "innovative" country open to the rest of the world with an alternative outlook on the US and the Asia- Pacific, Ms Merkel said on Monday at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. Such a view counterbalances a more insular perspective across the English Channel.