Merkel seeks $6.7 billion for refugees

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government announced plans to spend an extra Euro 6 billion ($6.7 billion) on refugees next year as thousands more migrants poured into the country over the weekend.

Merkel's governing coalition said on Monday that Germany will add Euro 3 billion in spending to the 2016 federal budget and provide another Euro 3 billion to states and municipalities to tackle the region's biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

Germany and Austria plan to end emergency measures that allowed the passage of thousands of migrants over the weekend from Hungary without registering in that country. That decision came after talks between Merkel, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Faymann said in a statement on Sunday.

The countries late on Friday suspended European Union rules that require migrants to register and stay in the EU country where they first enter. The refugees, many coming from war-torn Syria, travelled on trains to Munich's main station and were then sent to shelters around the country as German citizens volunteered in mass numbers to help the newcomers.

Merkel's government is considering putting excess 2015 tax revenue in a fund that would help cover the refugee costs next year, according to a person familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.