Schroeder, Merkel to reach deal

2005-10-09 11:02

Berlin - The leaders of Germany's main political parties are to meet on Sunday in a bid to end the bitter battle over who should become the country's next chancellor.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder appears to be near agreeing to step aside and allow conservative opposition leader Angela Merkel to become the first woman chancellor in German history, weekend press reports say.

Agreement between the two leaders would also help pave the way for the formation of a "grand coalition" of Merkels Christian Democrat- led (CDU) opposition and Schroeders Social Democrats (SPD).

The CDU has proposed giving the SPD half the cabinet posts in the new government in exchange for agreeing that Merkel become chancellor, reports say.

The details of any deal reached at the Sunday meeting might not be released until early Monday and after both parties have presented the agreement to their executives.

Also attending the Sunday talks will be SPD chairman Franz Muentefering and Edmund Stoiber, the leader of the CDUs Bavarian-based associate party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

The talks follow last month's inconclusive election which produced a political stalemate in Germany with neither the SPD nor the CDU-CSU and their political allies winning enough seats to gain a parliamentary majority.

While the CDU-CSU emerged as the biggest political bloc in the new parliament, the SPD insisted that it was the strongest party and that Schroeder should stay on in the job as chancellor.

- SAPA