Merkel amused by fuss over gender in US presidential race

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she was fascinated by the US presidential election campaign but finds the fixation on gender in the race amusing.   

Asked by a male reporter about the debate over Hillary Clinton's chances of becoming America's first woman president, Germany's first female leader joked: "We've already put that behind us."   

Merkel, who has been in power for two years in Berlin at the helm of an unruly left-right coalition, said she found the primary races in the United States "unbelievably exciting".   

But she chuckled when the reporter asked her to comment on the discussion about women in the political arena, noting that there were few debates about men in politics.   

"Actually we only seem to talk about men in politics," she quipped.   

Quizzed about Clinton's teary-eyed campaign appearance ahead of her victory in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire last week, Merkel, 53, said it depended on the eye of the beholder.   

"All behaviour (in campaigns) is judged from the perspective of men -- the fact that men occasionally now need to talk about a woman in politics is not a problem, it enriches the debate," she said.