BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she aimed to have Germany's economy, Europe's largest, back at its pre-crisis growth levels by 2013.

"If we manage ... to get to the level where we were before the crisis by 2013, then we will have done good work ... that is the task that lies before us," an unusually animated Merkel, 55, told the German parliament.

"We want Germany to emerge stronger from this crisis than it was when it went in," added the chancellor.

Germany is struggling to emerge from its worst recession since World War II and is poised to run up a record debt mountain of 85.8 billion euros (122 billion dollars) this year.

Merkel said Germany, one of the world's top exporters, would have to rely on its traditional industrial strengths to pull itself out of crisis.

"Germany will only be able to secure its prosperity when it remains a strong exporting country. Anyone who says we should not export so much is wrong," she said.

Merkel added: "What made us strong -- the chemical and automobile industries, medical equipment, transport technology -- must be continued ... and should never be given up."

Following signs that the German economy is slowly picking up, the government has raised its growth forecast for 2010 to 1.5 percent from 1.2 percent previously estimated.