Merkel woos her opponents with vista of another grand coalition

Kuehlungsborn, Germany

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel previewed the agenda of her next government, saying any coalition partner would have to support a balanced budget and broadly pro-business policies.

In a speech to members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she reached out in the clearest terms yet to the Social Democratic Party (SPD), her main opponents, in effect proposing a rerun of the "grand coalition" that governed Germany for the past four years.