German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the nation's top parties still have big obstacles to clear on the way to a new coalition deal. Meetings between Merkel's Conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats have dragged past the Thursday deadline into Friday.

Negotiators have promised to make a decision by Friday on whether to launch formal coalition talks. But officials have predicted many more hours of hard negotiations. Merkel has warned it would be, in her words, a tough day of talks. She says her conservative Christian Democrats will work constructively to find the necessary compromises. September's inconclusive elections deprived Merkel of a majority in parliament. She now wants to renew an alliance with Social Democrats, after having failed to forge a coalition with two smaller parties.