Germany's Merkel says regrets spymaster scandal

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she regretted last week's dispute over Germany's scandal-tainted spymaster, which had briefly tipped Germany's six-month-old government into crisis and said it was time to focus on the problems of the people.

"I focused too much on functionality and processes in the interior ministry and not enough on what moves people, rightly, when they hear of someone's promotion. I regret very much that that was allowed to happen," she said on Monday.

"It is important that we now solve the problems of the people," she said.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, Editing by Tassilo Hummel)