German economy minister cancels Middle East trip for budget talks

German Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday cancelled a planned trip to the Middle East to focus on talks over a hole in Germany's 2024 budget and said he was "very optimistic" a solution would be found.

The economy minister was due to fly to Dubai on Monday evening to attend COP28 and then to Oman, Israel and Saudi Arabia but was asked by the chancellor to postpone the trip, a spokesperson said.

The coalition government is in intensive talks over how to tackle a 17-billion-euro ($18.50 billion) gap blown in the 2024 budget by a constitutional court ruling last month.

Finance minister Christian Lindner proposed in an interview on Saturday cutting social spending, international climate financing, development cooperation and some subsidies to fill the gap.

Asked about Lindner's proposal on the Sunday evening Anne Will talk show, Habeck said all parties were putting forward suggestions in line with their views but that this was "not a contribution to solve the problem."

"I am very optimistic that we are on a good path to reach an agreement," the economy minister added, declining to give further details before an agreement had been reached.

($1 = 0.9187 euros)