BERLIN, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Germany's governing coalition parties were unable to resolve its ongoing dispute over an extension of the arms export ban to Saudi Arabia, German local media reported on Thursday.
"We are still engaged in intensive talks," said German government spokesperson Steffen Seibert after the meeting of the German security council (BSR).
An attempt to reach an agreement in a confidential meeting was unsuccessful. The BSR, headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, deferred its deliberations to an unspecified date in the future.
Following the death of the Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, the German government suspended all arms shipments to Saudi Arabia .
The German government has already extended the ban twice, most recently to March 31, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur.
On Saturday, Andrea Nahles, leader of the Social Democratic Party(SPD), had called for a six-month extension of the export ban but the SPD's coalition partners CDU/CSU were against this.
