BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, mired in crisis after his three-party coalition collapsed this week, said on Friday he is open to talks on whether to move forward snap elections.

The embattled chancellor has signalled new polls by March -half a year earlier than scheduled but all opposition parties have urgently demanded they be held as early as January to restore stability.

Two-thirds of German voters agree, a survey showed, demanding a new government quickly at a time when Germany faces deep economic woes and ge opolitical volatility.

Germany`s crisis erupted on Wednesday, just as Donald Trump won the White House race with as yet unknown consequences for transatlantic trade and the crises in Ukraine and Middle East.

Scholz`s political rivals have threatened to block his minority government from passing laws unless he immediately asks for a confidence vote that would allow for a speedy election.

But Scholz threw the ball back into their court by demanding they first help him pass key legislation, in a message aimedchiefly at the CDU-CSU conservative opposition.

Speaking in his trademark unruffled tone on the sidelines of an EU summit in Budapest, Scholz urged a `calm debate` first among parliamentary groups on what laws can be passed this year.

This `could help answer the question of when the right time is` for a confidence vote leading to an early election, he said.

He added that `the election date is not a purely political` decision but must also `allow sufficient time for the organisation of a fair and democratic election`.

`Clear the way` In Berlin, the debate was anything but calm.

The conservative opposition seems to have rejected Scholz`s offer of talks out of hand.

`First the vote of confidence, then we can talk about issues,` conservative MP Alexander Dobrindt told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

The popular Bild daily called for Scholz to `clear the way` for a new government. `You, Mr Scholz, have tried and failed,` Bild editor Marion Horn wrote in a blistering commentary.-AFP