GETTY Angela Merkel has until today to striek a deal with her would-be coalition partners

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Germany could be heading for a snap election, unless the Chancellor's Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) can iron out disagreements with their would-be coalition partners over climate and migration policy. A self-imposed deadline to agree a new Government passed by on Friday without success with the parties agreeing to extend talks until today. Mrs Merkel's hopes of avoiding a new election, and a possible leadership challenge, rest on forming an awkward three-way alliance with between the CDU and its Bavarian allies the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Greens and the business-minded Free Demmocrats. But after four weeks of talks, the parties are still no closer to a resolution and forming the so-called Jamaica coalition.

The biggest sticking points are over climate change, where the Greens want emissions cuts that the other parties see as economically ruinous, and immigration, but Mrs Merkel's arch-conservative CSU insist on stricter rules. Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as he arrived for the talks on Saturday, said: "The next two days are going to be decisive." But talks wrapped up at 5pm on Saturday evening with no deal agreed. A self-imposed deadline of Thursday for wrapping up exploratory talks and starting formal coalition negotiations passed without agreement, forcing the conservatives to promise further concessions on emissions cuts to the Greens.

GETTY Angela Merkel heads home after another day of unsuccessful negotiations

GETTY Angela Merkel is in talks with the FDP and the Greens about a colaition

The CSU fears that it risks being topppled by the far-right in regional elections next year after 60 years in power if it fails to secure immigration red lines that the Greens vehemently oppose. CSU leader Horst Seehofer said: "We'll have a sense this evening of whether it's going to work." Among its demands are a cap of 200,000 per year on the number of refugees Germany will take, and an end to the practice of allowing successful asylum seekers to bring their immediate families to join them.

GETTY Green leaders Cem Ozdemir and Katrin Goering-Eckardt want to cut coal-burning output

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, warned against "fresh election panic", suggesting in a newspaper interview that the brinkmanship was not out of the ordinary. "Before they get going there are always attempts by parties to drive prices up as high as possible," he told Welt am Sonntag. "What we've seen in the past weeks isn't so different from previous negotiations." All parties are anxious to avoid a repeat election, which they fear could boost the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which surged into parliament for the first time in September's national election.

GETTY Free Democrats leader Christian Lindner departs after another night of failed talks

But the three-way coalition, made necessary after the conservatives and the centre-left suffered punishing election losses, is almost without precedent in Germany's post-war history. The "Jamaica" tie-up, so-called because the three camps' colours match the island nation's flag, has never occured at national level. It is perhaps the biggest test of Mrs Merkel's chancellorship in her 12 years in office.

GETTY Angela Merkel gives a press statement last week before the deadline for negotiations was extended

GETTY The three parties have been in talks for four weeks without success