Social Democrats OK talks on new Merkel govt

BERLIN - Germany's center-left Social Democrats have agreed to open talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives on whether to renew their governing coalition or at least support a minority government.

Party leader Martin Schulz, Merkel's defeated challenger in the Sept 24 election, secured a party congress's agreement to a motion calling for talks on "whether and in what form" the party could support a new government.

Delegates voted down a call from the party's youth wing to explicitly rule out a repeat of the "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties in which the Social Democrats have been junior partners since 2013.