Berlin, Germany — Germany's likely next chancellor said Monday that he thought US President Donald Trump deliberately escalated the angry clash with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky that has shocked Kyiv's allies.

Friedrich Merz said the astonishing White House confrontation on Friday made it almost inevitable that Germany would have to increase defense spending on its own military.

He said he was hopeful of reaching an agreement this week on the terms of an increase as part of coalition talks to form a new government.

"According to my assessment this was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelensky was saying but clearly a deliberate escalation," Merz said at a news conference, calling the tone of the clash "unhelpful".

But he said there was a "certain continuity" after Vice President JD Vance last month urged Europe to "step up" in managing its own security and criticised European countries on a range of culture war issues.

Trump and Vance's angry comments on Friday, urging Zelensky to be "thankful" for US support against the invading Russian army and demanding he "make a deal" with Moscow, has spooked Kyiv's European allies.

Merz's centre-right CDU/CSU alliance came first in last month's election and is currently in discussions with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) on forming a government.

"We want to do something for the German army and that's become even more clear after Friday's events at the White House," he said.

With wider calls for European partners to increase defense spending and US support for Ukraine now uncertain, Berlin has been under pressure to boost its aid to Ukraine and bolster its own defenses.

'Constructive' talks

The CDU/CSU alliance and the SPD have to make a "short-term decision as to whether we can make a larger financial volume available for the armed forces in the coming days", Merz said. 

Talks with the SPD were "constructive", he said, adding that he expected the first results on Wednesday, before an EU security summit attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

"We are ready to reach agreements very quickly this week," SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil said.

But he said the party, which has been calling for massive investment not just in defense, needed "a common understanding of the major financing challenges facing our country".

According to several German media outlets, the parties are considering the creation of two special funds, one for defense and another for infrastructure.

The funds could be adopted with two-thirds of the votes in the current Bundestag, but that could prove trickier after 25 March when the new assembly returns.

Negotiators are said to have looked at reports from economists estimating the needs of the German army at 400 billion euros ($419 billion) and infrastructure at 500 billion euros.

Despite being a long-standing transatlanticist, Merz has emphasised the need for more European independence from the United States in defense policy in light of the Trump administration's actions.

"I think we need to prepare to do much, much more for our own security in the coming years and decades," he said, though he insisted "that we must do everything we can to keep the Americans in Europe".