German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner aim to agree on an outline of the 2025 budget next week, sources told Reuters on Thursday, after weeks of wrangling.

Although the three will not be able to present a cabinet decision on the draft budget next week, they could present a political agreement on key points and a deal on financing.

The German government no longer expects the cabinet to reach an agreement on the 2025 draft budget by a July 3 deadline, government sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

A new date of July 17 is being considered, which would mean that all deadlines for submitting the draft budget to the Bundestag lower house of parliament can still be met.

The finance ministry needs around two weeks to draw up a detailed draft budget after a political agreement is reached.

No details were provided about the political agreement between the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) who make up the government.

However, the FDP has said it would not consider softening strict debt rules while the SPD has drawn a red line at a pension age of 63 after 45 years of insurance contributions. Financing the green transition is paramount to the Greens. (Reporting by Holger Hansen, writing by Maria Martinez, Editing by Madeline Chambers)