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By Stephen Brown and Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) clinched a coalition deal early on Wednesday that puts Germany on track to have a new government in place by Christmas. The agreement was struck roughly two months after Merkel was the clear winner in national elections but fell short of a parliamentary majority, forcing her into talks with the arch-rival SPD, with whom she ruled in an awkward "grand coalition" during her first term as Chancellor from 2005-2009. The deal, spelled out in a detailed 185-page policy document, will not be final until approved over the coming weeks by a postal ballot of the 474,000 card-carrying SPD members, many of them skeptical about partnering with Merkel again. "No new taxes and no new debts." Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament and a senior SPD negotiator, called it an "excellent result" for his party.
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