Bundestag opens as coalition talks continue

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder received his formal release from office on Tuesday as a result of losing the Sept. 18 election -- and was promptly asked by President Horst Koehler to stay on as a caretaker as the new German parliament convened for its first meeting.

In a ceremony that was mostly a formality, Koehler handed Schroeder and the rest of his Cabinet diplomas marking their release from office. Schroeder's term legally ended when the new parliament convened, but he will remain in office for at least four more weeks until a new government is formed.

The new coalition Cabinet line-up uniting right and left was finalized on Monday, when chancellor-designate Angela Merkel named conservatives including one of her fiercest political rivals, Horst Seehofer, to ministerial posts.

The power-sharing government of Merkel's Christian Democrats and Schroeder's Social Democrats has begun four weeks of negotiations to hammer out a joint government program, meaning that it will be a month or more before parliament can vote in a new chancellor.

The Bundestag or lower house of parliament opened business on Tuesday by electing a new parliamentary president -- Norbert Lammert, a lawmaker with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The parliament president's post is Germany's No.2 job in protocol terms, after that of Koehler. It carries prestige but little power.

The job, like the chancellorship, traditionally goes to the party with the strongest parliamentary group, and Lammert was unopposed. He was approved 564 votes to 25, with 17 abstentions.

The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, have 226 seats in the new parliament -- only just ahead of the Social Democrats, who have 222.

That means their combined government would have broad support, with 448 seats out of 614, or just under three-quarters.

But many have expressed worry that the government will be so internally divided on issues and ideology that it won't be able to take tough and potentially unpopular action to fix the sluggish economy.

The Bundestag's oldest mem-ber, outgoing Interior Minister Otto Schily, 73, gave a speech calling on the new deputies to restore "optimism, self-confidence and trust" in the political process among Germans who saw their leaders squabble for two weeks following the election before a compromise was found.

As both Merkel and Schroeder looked on, Schily urged members of parliament to "stop trying to score political points" and pull together for the good of a country struggling with high unemployment and low economic growth.

The German press on Tuesday predicted problems ahead for Merkel following the nomination of Seehofer to the agriculture ministry.

Edmund Stoiber, the head of the Christian Democrats' Bavarian sister party and the new economy minister, insisted on Seehofer's nomination, showing that Merkel cannot rely on her fellow conservatives for support.