Germany and Britain agreed on Wednesday that Prime Minister Theresa May needed time to prepare for talks to leave the EU, after London took the first step toward Brexit by giving up its presidency of the European Union.

On her first foreign trip since taking office in the wake of Britain's seismic referendum, May told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that her government would not ask to leave the European Union before the end of 2016 in order to plan a "sensible and orderly departure".

"We will not invoke Article 50 until our objectives are clear, which is why I've said already this will not happen before the end of this year," May said in Berlin, referring to the formal EU mechanism to leave the bloc.