Reuters- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized a new U.S. travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries, the online site of German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday.

"She is convinced that even the necessary, decisive battle against terrorism does not justify putting people of a specific background or faith under general suspicion," Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told the magazine.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday ordered a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily banned travelers from Syria and six other predominantly-Muslim countries.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, editing by Larry King)