BERLIN — Angela Merkel sought advice from the pope on dealing with Donald Trump when he was first elected US president, hoping to find ways of convincing a man she saw as having a property developer's winner-or-loser mentality not to quit the Paris climate accords.

In her memoir, extracts of which were published in German weekly Die Zeit late on Wednesday (Nov 20) evening, the long-serving German chancellor detailed her difficulties in dealing with Trump, who, she said, appeared to her fascinated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian leaders.

"He saw everything from the perspective of the property developer he was before entering politics," she wrote. "Each parcel of land could only be sold once, and if he didn't get it someone else did. That's how he saw the world."

Pope Francis, when Merkel asked him, in general terms, for advice on dealing with people "with fundamentally different views", immediately understood she was referring to Trump and his desire to quit the climate accords, she wrote.

"Bend, bend, bend, but make sure it doesn't break," he told Merkel, according to her account.

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