BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition partners ended a meeting on Sunday on how to deal with Germany's refugee crisis with agreement in some areas but the need for more talks on other points, a government spokesman said.

Merkel, the leader of her conservatives' Bavarian sister party, and Social Democrat (SPD) chief Sigmar Gabriel would meet again on Thursday, spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

"There is a lot of common ground and some points that remain open and still to be settled," Steffen said, adding that these included the idea of introducing so-called 'transit zones' at border crossings to process refugees' asylum requests.