By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel could suffer an embarrassing defeat in parliament on Thursday if members of her centre-right coalition break ranks and back an opposition bill requiring German companies to hire more women executives.

By Stephen Brown BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host David Cameron and his wife and children at a castle outside Berlin at the weekend in a rare family get-together that she may hope will create the right mood to heal a growing rift between Britain and Europe. Cameron, who warned this week that British support for the EU was "wafer thin", will spend the weekend with Merkel and her husband Joachim Sauer at Schloss Meseburg northwest of Berlin accompanied by his wife Samantha and their three children.

The coalition government of Germany's Angela Merkel scored its best poll results in more than three years, less than six months before elections, in a survey published on Wednesday. If a vote were held now, her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its junior partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), would win a clear governing majority, said the Forsa institute poll.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to "give a chance" to non-governmental organisations which she described as a "motor of innovation". The two leaders were opening the Hanover industrial trade fair in north Germany. Russia is the fair's partner country this year. Her statement, made in her much applauded opening speech, was a direct reference to Russian probes into a number of international NGOs including German think tanks, moves criticised by Moscow's partners.