Germany's Merkel turns down UN job offer

German media reported that Guterres had offered Merkel the chair of a high-level UN advisory body on global public goods, one of his flagship reform projects. 

It will focus on issues including the ozone layer, vaccines and outer space debris.

Merkel, a conservative, has stayed out of the political spotlight since handing over Germany's chancellorship to Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat.

She is working on a political memoir with her long-time aide, according to an interview in Der Spiegel, but little more is known about Merkel's life in retirement.