EAST BERLIN — Communist Prime Minister Hans Modrow offered places in his Cabinet to opposition groups Monday in order to keep the struggling East German government intact until elections scheduled for May.
Two of the opposition groups, including the Social Democratic Party, indicated they would accept the offer to keep the government from collapsing.
Ibrahim Boehme, leader of the Social Democrats, said at the regular "round-table" meeting of the government and opposition groups that he is generally in favor of the move. But he said conditions for joining the coalition government should be set out in advance and that other major opposition groups should be included.
"I believe that such participation is possible," Boehme said, "only if all parties and groups at the round table are prepared to join the government on an emergency basis, without long negotiations that would further damage the country."
