German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet French President Francois Hollande in Paris on Wednesday evening to plan next week's European summit in Brussels, a German government spokesman said.

"The subject of the meeting will be preparing the European summit to be held Thursday and Friday," the spokesman told Agence France Presse on Saturday ahead of the key meeting to search for solutions to the Eurozone crisis.

Saudi Arabia wants to buy 600-800 Leopard battle tanks from Germany, more than twice as many as originally envisaged, the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported, quoting government sources.

Thus far, reports had said the Saudis wanted to purchase around 300 Leopard-2 tanks, Germany's main battle tank which is also produced under license in Spain.

Ballots opened nationwide in Greece on Sunday for a critical general election that will determine whether the debt-laden nation will complete painful austerity reform or see its eurozone future jeopardized.

Some 9.8 million Greeks began voting at 0400 GMT in what is expected to be a close contest between the pro-bailout New Democracy conservative party and the anti-austerity radical leftist Syriza party that has spooked European leaders.

German police carried out raids in seven different regional states early Thursday targeting individuals suspected of belonging to radical Islamic Salafist groups, the interior ministry said.

At the same time, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich banned one particular network known as "Millatu Ibrahim".

Holland were left on the verge of exiting Euro 2012 at the group stage on Wednesday just two years after they looked set for a golden era when they reached the World Cup final.

Two goals by German striker Mario Gomez proved enough as the Euro 2008 finalists saw off the Dutch 2-1 and left them pointless after two games of Group B.

Plans to build a 1.6-billion-euro ($2 billion) particle accelerator in Germany cleared the first main hurdle Tuesday when authorities gave the go-ahead for construction to begin.

The environment minister for the regional state of Hesse, Lucia Puttrich, officially gave the green light for a new giant Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR), which is to be built on a 20-hectare site in Darmstadt, not far from Frankfurt.

Germany said Friday it was "horrified" by the latest Syrian massacre and urged Russia to throw its support behind a tougher condemnation of Damascus by the United Nations Security Council.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a regular briefing that Syrian President Bashar Assad had lost all "legitimacy" and that a political solution was "unthinkable.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle urged all Lebanese parties on Friday to attend the national dialogue that President Michel Suleiman had called for, describing it a chance to promote consensus.

“The national dialogue in Lebanon is an opportunity to consolidate consensus and national unity,” Westerwelle said following talks with Premier Najib Miqati on the second and last day of his visit to Beirut.

Documenta, one of the world's biggest contemporary art fairs, will open to the public Saturday in this central German city, accompanied by events in Afghanistan, Egypt and Canada.

The 13th edition of the event, held every five years, will present the work of nearly 300 people from around 55 countries -- only about half of them "artists" in the conventional sense, organizers said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that she would work towards a political union in Europe with willing partner countries even if that meant a two-speed approach.

"We need more Europe...a budget union...and we need a political union first and foremost," Merkel told German public television. "We must step by step cede responsibilities to Europe."