German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that Germany has "utterly failed" at creating a society where people from diverse cultures can live together peacefully.
Ms. Merkel told a rally of members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party that it is impossible to allow people from different backgrounds to live together without integration.
Ms. Merkel faces pressure from within her party to take a tougher line on immigrants who do not show a willingness to adapt to German society.
She said immigrants living in Germany needed to do more, including learning to speak German.
The integration of immigrants, especially Muslims, has been a controversial issue since August when a member of Germany's central bank said in a book that Muslim immigrants were lowering the intelligence of German society.
The banker, Thilo Sarrazin, has since resigned but his book - Germany Does Itself In - has been wildly popular, and polls showed considerable sympathy for most of his views.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.
