Germany's SPD holds talks on new election amid govt crisis

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), who are in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, have held three internal meeting to talk about the prospect of snap elections, party sources told dpa.

The meetings, chaired by SPD secretary general Lars Klingbeil, were about potential dates for the poll, as well as drawing up candidate lists and a party programme and organizing an extraordinary party conference, the sources confirmed.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), are locked in a bitter dispute about how to deal with migrants at the German border. Speculation is rife that the stand-off could result in a split between the long-standing allies.