BERLIN, April 7 (Reuters) - The German government needs to take a more aggressive approach to battle the effects of the recession, the head of Germany's trade union federation (DGB) said on Tuesday.
DGB chairman Michael Sommer said the government needed to broaden and extend its stimulus measures from the current 81-billion euros for 2009 and 2010.
"We're still far away from seeing the end of the crisis," Sommer told journalists in Berlin. "We've got to do everything we can to support jobs. The government's steps so far aren't broad enough nor extensive enough."
Sommer said he welcomed assurances from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the government would take a closer look at the impact of the stimulus measures so far after the Easter break.
"We've also got to consider how we're going to lastingly strengthen the manufacturing sector through modernisation."
Separately, Bavaria state premier Horst Seehofer denied a newspaper report that he was in favour of the government launching a third stimulus package. The government has already passed two separate packages in the last six months.
"There is no discussion about a third stimulus package," Seehofer told a news conference in Berlin, adding he believed it was now important to wait and see the impact of the first two. "I don't see any necessity for that at this point at all."
The Financial Times Deutschland reported that Seehofer told a closed-door meeting of Christian Social Union party leaders at the weekend that he favoured a third stimulus package.
Merkel and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck have firmly opposed a third set of stimulus measures because they want to wait and see the impact the first two measures.
(Reporting by Thorsten Severin and Matthias Sobolewski; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Ron Askew)