BERLIN: Germany's Greens said on Wednesday they wanted to move to three-way talks with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) on forming a new coalition government following a national election late last month.

Greens co-leader Robert Habeck told reporters his party "is proposing to the FDP to approach the SPD together and then move from the phase of exploratory talks to three-way talks."

"This is a proposal to the FDP for the time being. Let's see how they respond to it," Habeck said, adding that the Greens still had considerable differences with both the FDP and the SPD. "Many things have not yet been discussed. "

The three parties have already each met separately but have not yet held three-way talks. The SPD, which narrowly won the election, already said on Sunday it was ready to move to three-way coalition talks.

At stake is the cohesiveness of a new government, its appetite to shape up Europe's largest economy for the digital era, and the extent of Berlin's willingness to engage on foreign issues to the degree that its allies would like.

Conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, in power since 2005, plans to step down once a new government is formed and will stay on until that point.