German Chancellor Angela Merkel sees "good prospects" for Serbia's attempts to join the European Union despite disagreements over the status of Kosovo. Merkel was speaking at a joint press conference with Serbian President Boris Tadic, who was received in Berlin Monday to meet with the chancellor as well as German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and business leaders.

Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) have closed the gap on Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives ahead of a general election next week, according to a new opinion poll available Friday.

A survey by the research group Infratest dimap showed the SPD gaining 3 per cent to 26 per cent, while Merkel's Christian Democrats remained unchanged at 35 per cent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel denied Monday that her government had saved carmaker Opel at the expense of smaller companies which are being battered by the world recession.

Canvassing votes in suburban Munich for Christian Democratic candidates in this month's European Parliament elections, she told a crowd that the federal government had so far aided 345 smaller companies.

A lost Soviet bomb from the Second World War was discovered Friday just outside the Berlin apartment of Chancellor Angela Merkel, triggering a city-centre lockdown as bomb-disposal experts defused it. The 100-kilogram bomb was discovered just 10 centimetres below the sandy surface of a museum forecourt.

Merkel and her husband lives on Berlin's Island of Museums, between two arms of the Spree River. The bomb was found in front of the Neues Museum, one of five museums of art and antiquities that have given the central-city island its name.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called business and labour leaders to Berlin Wednesday for an economic crisis summit amid a warning that the country could face social unrest if further steps are not taken to tackle the slump in Europe's biggest economy.

The meeting is the latest sign that the global recession is moving to centre stage in the campaign for German elections in September, with Merkel attempting to sharpen her crisis management credentials by also taking a leading role in shaping international moves to address the crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived Monday on a surprise visit to Afghanistan, her second to the country, to visit German soldiers.

Merkel, accompanied by Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung, landed at a military base in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, where 700 German troops are stationed.

A number of attacks occurred near the base shortly before Merkel's visit. Shots were fired at German soldiers overnight as they were guarding a bridge construction project 7 kilometres from the camp. None was hurt.

Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday blamed the radical Palestinian movement Hamas for the latest flare-up with Israel and said Germany would do all it could to promote peace in the Middle East.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel denied Thursday any bias in plans to spend billions of euros on repairing roads and schools to jolt the flagging economy back to life.