The invention relates to a method for regenerating a particulate filter in the exhaust gas channel of an internal combustion engine. Here, the particulate filter is divided into several zones for determining the loading state, and, at the same time, a temperature distribution over the cross section of the particulate filter is determined. In order to prevent the soot retained in the edge zones of in the particulate filter from being insufficiently oxidized, when it is ascertained that the edge zones have been sufficiently loaded, the exhaust gas temperature is raised to a temperature which, in spite of the heat losses in the edge areas, lies above the temperature at which oxidation of the soot particles can take place. The invention further relates to an internal combustion engine having an exhaust gas channel and a particulate filter arranged in the exhaust gas channel, said internal combustion engine being configured to carry out such a method.