German opposition leader Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed Saturday to the Free Democrats (FDP) to return to the negotiation table in the country's most populous state where, two weeks on, no solution had emerged after regional elections, dpa reported. The vote, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, ousted a coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the FDP, which had mirrored the power arrangement in Berlin. Steinmeier, the parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats (SDP), asked the FDP to reconsider their earlier refusal to enter coalition talks with his party and the Greens, after other political alignments had failed. -- SPA
