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German rivals nearing agreement

Conservative leader Angela Merkel pushed her demand to serve as Germany's next chancellor while Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder clung to his competing claim as they readied yesterday for tough negotiations aimed at ending the country's political crisis.

The two were to meet yesterday for a round of summit talks along with Franz Muentefering, the chairman of Schroeder's Social Democrats, and Merkel's fellow conservative leader Edmund Stoiber.

Both sides said that the haggling could last through Sunday before Germans know who their next leaders is. If Schroeder and Merkel can decide which of them will back off, both parties are to hold leadership meetings on Monday that could endorse the beginning of formal talks on a "grand coalition" of Germany's two biggest political parties.

"We believe that we will have results on Sunday evening that are firm," Muentefering told reporters.

Muentefering said his party was keeping its aim of governing "with Gerhard Schroeder at the helm" -- although he appeared to suggest that was an aspiration rather than a demand. Merkel stuck firmly to her own demand that the Social Democrats recognize her right, as the leader of the largest group in parliament, to become Germany's first female chancellor.

"We have always said that, to start [formal] coalition negotiations, a further condition must be fulfilled -- a basis of trust must be created," Merkel told reporters. "This basis of trust can only be created if certain rules are respected."

She also insisted that her conservative bloc should get the job of parliament president, which traditionally goes to the strongest parliamentary group. The post has featured in speculation over how Schroeder's party could be persuaded to back down.

Merkel refused to say what inducements she might offer the Social Democrats.

Muentefering was similarly tightlipped about the chances of his party's lawmakers accepting a Chancellor Merkel, noting that a coalition would have to be endorsed by a party convention.

The two sides have been forced toward a so-called "grand coalition" because voters ousted Schroeder's seven-year government of Social Democrats and Greens on Sept. 18 but also denied the conservatives a majority for a center-right coalition.
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