Angela Merkel

Weakened by an election setback in September, Merkel turned to the left-leaning SPD to renew their grand coalition after the collapse in November of talks on a three-way coalition with the Greens and Free Democrats (FDP).

The German government "does not support this position because the status of Jerusalem can only be negotiated within the framework of a two-state solution," spokesman Steffen Seibert wrote on Twitter.

Merkel said on Monday she would meet the German president to inform him that she had failed to form a coalition government with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

After more than a month of gruelling negotiations, Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democratic Party said there was no "basis of trust" to forge a government with Merkel's conservative alliance CDU-CSU and ecologist Greens.

Kochhar was ranked 32 on the coveted list while HCL Corporation CEO Roshni Nadar Malhotra took the 57th position, followed by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder-Chair, of Biocon, at 71.

Merkel made her comments after the first day of a European Union summit at which British Prime Minister Theresa May appealed to her fellow leaders to help her silence critics at home and break a deadlock in the talks.

The SPD, which has governed the swing state home to carmaker Volkswagen with the Greens for four years, won 37.3 percent, well up from 32.6 percent in the last election there in 2013, according to projections on public broadcaster ARD.

Trump wished her well in the formation of her fourth government, the WH officials said.

"There is a wide agreement between France and Germany when it comes to the proposals although we must work on the details," Merkel told reporters before an EU leaders dinner to discuss a raft of reforms proposed by Macron in a landmark speech on Tuesday.

Having been sworn in first in November 2005, Merkel is expected to catch up with Helmut Kohl, who served 16 years as the German Chancellor

Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office on Sunday but will have to build an uneasy coalition to form a German government.

Surveys suggest Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU alliance has a double-digit lead over its nearest rivals, the centre- left Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Martin Schulz.

"With regards to North Korea, I consider any other option to be without foundation. And this is why there is a clear disagreement on this point with the American president," Merkel said.

The arrests brought the number of German political prisoners in Turkish custody to 12, at a time when ties between the two NATO allies were already at an all-time low.

However, environmentalists said the plan - almost two years after Volkswagen admitted to cheating U.S. diesel emissions tests - was too little, too late, and vowed to press ahead with legal action aimed at banning polluting vehicles.

It is expected that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reinforce India’s commitment to the Paris climate accord and renewable energy.

Trump may have vowed to pull the US out of the 2015 climate protection deal, but "many many other countries want to go on implementing" it, Merkel told journalists.

"In an extensive discussion (over phone), the two leaders addressed climate issues, the Women's Entrepreneurship Financing Initiative, and trade, including global steel overcapacity," the White House said in a statement yesterday.

"We are ready for the negotiations. We want to do it quickly, respecting the calendar,".

Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Union's executive Commission, lashed Trump's decision as "seriously wrong."