Germany's Angela Merkel in coalition talks

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's triumphant conservative party is considering who to team up with to form a new German coalition after their election victory. Her conservative bloc got 41.5% - their best result since 1994, but just short of a clear majority. The election was a shock for their liberal partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), who failed to get any seats.

A coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) is seen as most likely - but only after hard bargaining. The SPD came second, with just under 25.7%. In 2005-2009 they were in a "grand" coalition with Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies, the CSU - but correspondents say that the experience has made them wary about working with the CDU/CSU again. The SPD suffered a big drop in its electoral support in 2009. That result was widely seen as punishment for having teamed up with Mrs Merkel and been made to look very much the junior partner.

The SPD has criticised Mrs Merkel's economic austerity drive, saying Germany should show more solidarity with struggling EU partners in southern Europe such as Greece. The SPD leader, Peer Steinbrueck, was finance minister in the previous grand coalition, but has said he would not serve in such a government again.

There is speculation that the CDU might yet form a coalition with the Green Party, though that is seen as less likely than a CDU-SPD government, because of bigger policy differences. The FDP was left with no national representation in parliament for the first time in Germany's post-war history.

Party chairman Philipp Roesler called it "the bitterest, saddest hour of the Free Democratic Party".

The FDP was beaten by the Green Party (8.4%) and the former communist Left Party (8.6%). It almost finished behind the new Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD), which advocates withdrawal from the euro currency and took 4.7%, just short of the parliamentary threshold.

In theory the three leftist parties - the SPD, Greens and Left - would have enough seats together for a majority. However both the former two have ruled out an alliance with the Left Party (Die Linke), regarding it as too radical.

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