Merkel says bundle of measures needed to solve refugee crisis

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday a bundle of national and European measures were needed to help stem the number of refugees arriving in Germany. "We are taking national steps, it is a bundle of measures, from transit zones to the fast implementation of the laws, and above all to intensify the deportation of asylum seekers whose applications are rejected," Merkel said ahead of a regular meeting of conservative lawmakers in Berlin. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) agreed at the weekend to set up transit zones on the border with Austria, where migrants deemed to have no solid claim to asylum will be denied entry. But their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have yet to back the plan. (Reporting by Caroline Copley and Joseph Nasr; Editing by Paul Carrel)