German coalition talks dragging on after all-night session

BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and Germany's main center-left party are still haggling over a deal to form a new coalition government after negotiations that lasted through the night.

There was no sign of an imminent end to talks between Merkel's Union bloc and the Social Democrats early Wednesday, some 21 hours into what party leaders have said should be the final round of negotiations.

If a deal emerges, it won't bring an immediate end to the political limbo following Germany's Sept. 24 election.

Any agreement will be put to a ballot of the Social Democrats' more than 460,000 members. Many of them are skeptical after the party's disastrous election result, which followed four years of a "grand coalition" with the party serving as junior partner to Merkel's conservatives.