Merkel, still on crutches, to step up schedule: spokesman

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping up her schedule after a skiing accident last month left her on crutches but will have to deliver a key speech next week sitting down, her spokesman said today.
Merkel, 59, fractured her pelvis while cross-country skiing in Switzerland over the Christmas holiday and was ordered to cut back her schedule dramatically and stay in bed as much as possible for three weeks.
"Now the healing process is entering the next phase and the chancellor can begin to take on more of a burden next week," the spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters.
"But that doesn't mean that her pelvis is fully able to withstand stress again. That is why you will see the chancellor on crutches for several weeks to come."

Seibert said Merkel would have to remain seated during an address before parliament next Wednesday on progress on her "grand coalition" government's agenda made at a cabinet retreat at a castle outside Berlin this week.
However her agenda will be packed with appointments for the first time since the New Year, including talks yesterday with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Seibert said Merkel expressed her "heartfelt thanks" for the "countless get-well-soon messages from across Germany and around the world".