Berlin  - Chancellor Angela Merkel and key members of her cabinet held talks Sunday with industrialists and financial experts in a bid to hammer out an economic strategy to help Germany out of recession.

"We want to study the possibilities of reacting quickly to a worsening of the crisis," Merkel told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag ahead of the meeting at the federal chancellery in Berlin.

The chancellor has been under pressure to introduce new measures to stimulate the economy, following a 32-billion euro ( 42.5 billion dollars) programme of tax relief and construction incentives already in place.

Merkel said a focal point of the meeting would be "to guarantee jobs and strengthen the foundations that make Germany stronger."

Another issue is the 480 billion-euro bailout fund introduced in October to prop up the banking sector. So far 15 banks have applied for state aid to ease their liquidity problems, but the government wants more of them to do so and loosen credit lines for small- and medium-sized firms.

Officials warned against expecting too much from the meeting, describing it as an opportunity to take stock of the measures already enacted and discuss new incentives that might be needed.

At the most there could be a "minimal agreement" on which measures might best be suited to prime the economy and which might not be, deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said on Friday.

The talks come amidst media reports that Merkel is putting together a new stimulus package which she plans to unveil sometime after the inauguration of US president-elect Barack Obama on January 20.

The weekly business magazine Wirtschaftswoche said the measures would be worth at least 30 billion euros, and include income tax reductions, cuts to mandatory health insurance contributions, infrastructure investments and consumer vouchers for the less well-off.

With Europe's largest economy expected to shrink by 0.8 per cent next year, officials at the Federal Labour Agency have warned of a sharp rise in the number of jobless from April when the effects of falling orders for exports and the car industry start to kick in.

More than 30 experts are attending Sunday's meeting, which is expected to last well into the evening.

Joining Merkel on the government side were her deputy, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, Economics Minister Michael Glos and Labour Minister Olaf Scholz.

Central Bank president Axel Weber, Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann and Deutsche Telekom chief Rene Obermann were also present as well as senior economists and trade union leaders. (dpa)