Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel was publicly non-committal Wednesday over Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's reported interest in becoming secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Rasmussen, who visited her in Berlin, has been described in the news media as a candidate to succeed Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as the highest official of the alliance from August this year.

Merkel told reporters she was not prepared to join in speculation on the topic, adding that there were a lot of talks under way on the matter. Rasmussen himself has been tight-lipped on the issue.

After his talks at Merkel's office, the Dane spoke out against protectionism as a response the world financial and economic crisis.

"We must resist every temptation in the direction of protectionism. There is a genuine danger to the world economy if we attempt to protect our own industries at the expense of our neighbours," he said.

Rasmussen said a proposal by Merkel for a world economic council modelled on the UN Security Council was "an interesting idea."

However Merkel said she did not intend to make it a key German proposal at the upcoming meeting of the world's 20 leading economies. and would instead focus on her call for a charter of worldwide economic standards similar to Germany's own practices.

"In my view, it's important to get a charter in the first place. We could look at institutional issues after that," she said. (dpa)