Seehofer told Bild am Sonntag newspaper: "No one in the CSU has an interest in bringing down the chancellor, to break up the CDU/CSU parliamentary alliance or to blow up the coalition."
However, in terms of substance, he showed no sign of shifting his position. "We want a solution for sending back refugees at our borders," he said. Two other leading CSU members said they wanted to start implementing the policy quickly.
Merkel has asked the CSU to give her two weeks to come up with bilateral deals with some countries, such as Italy and Greece, similar to one agreed between Turkey and the EU in 2016.
Former Bavarian premier Guenther Beckstein suggested on Saturday that one way out might be for Germany to agree to the CSU policy but to implement it only after the EU summit, to give Merkel time to deliver her "European solution".
Growing numbers of leading CDU figures, most of whom do not want to see Merkel fall even if they prefer the CSU's tough stance on migrants, have called for the two to settle their differences.
CDU General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, widely seen as Merkel's preferred successor, said the two parties agreed on the aim of minimising the number of migrants registered elsewhere and coming to Germany but disagreed on how to achieve it.
"Our hand is still outstretched to the CSU," she told Bild am Sonntag.
