Prime Minister Harper confident Europeans will solve crisis

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is confident European leaders will be able to resolve the European sovereign debt crisis, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday, while stressing that much work still needs to be done.

"We have every confidence in our European friends, and we believe they have the capacity and will to take up their own challenges," Harper told reporters after a meeting in the Canadian capital with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Europe has taken a number of very important steps, and we know that there are additional things that need to be done... Any advice that I have to give will be given privately," he said.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Noah Barkin; Writing by Louise Egan; Editing by Vicki Allen)