German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suffered a pelvis fracture in a ski accident during her Christmas holiday in a Switzerland, forcing her to cancel several meetings and visits scheduled for the coming weeks.

Merkel, 59, fell during a cross-country skiing at the resort of Engadin on the foothills of the Swiss Alps and sustained "severe bruise linked to a partial fracture on the left, rear part of the pelvic ring", a government spokesman said.

Initially, it was presumed that she had a painful bruise, but medical examination last Friday showed a fracture of the pelvis bone. The Chancellor did not require a hospitalisation and has been advised by her doctors to take bed rest at least for three weeks, the spokesman told a news conference.

She has been walking with the help of crutches and she intends to attend Wednesday's first meeting of her new conservative-social democrat "grand coalition" cabinet, which assumed office on December 17, according to the spokesman.

However, several official engagements scheduled for the coming weeks, including a visit to Poland, the first foreign trip of her third term and a meeting in Berlin with Luxembourg's new prime minister Xavier Bettel have been cancelled.