Merkel deems migrant deal good for coalition talks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday an agreement within her conservative bloc on limiting migrants would help forge a new government coalition, but one of the key partners, the Greens, said it would not become policy.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) agreed with their conservative CSU Bavarian allies on Sunday to limit to 200,000 the number of people Germany would accept per year on humanitarian grounds.

It was part of Merkel's drive to get the sister party on board so that she can start talks with the Greens and Free Democrats (FPD) on forming a "Jamaica" coalition - named for the black, green and yellow colours of the three blocs, which match the Caribbean island's flag.

"We achieved a joint result which I think is a very, very good basis to go into exploratory talks with the FDP and Greens," Merkel told a joint news conference with her Bavarian counterpart Horst Seehofer yesterday.

But underlying the difficulties in forging a coalition, the Greens said they disagreed with the migrant limit.

It would not stop a coalition being discussed, Green co-leader Cem Ozdemir said, but stressed it would not be part of the formal coalition agreement if one is reached.

Merkel said her conservative bloc would begin exploratory talks next week on forming a coalition - first with the FDP and Greens separately on Oct. 18, and then in a three-way format on Oct. 20.

Such a three-way tie-up is untested at national level but it is Merkel's only realistic option of forming a government as the centre-left Social Democrats - her previous coalition partners - insist they want to go into opposition.