A senior conservative’s participation in Germany’s proposed new left-right government was in doubt today as politicians struggled to digest the implications of a sudden leadership crisis in the centre-left Social Democrats.

Germany’s top political leaders were to meet today at a summit aimed at resolving their two-and-a-half-week stand-off over who will lead the country, with Angela Merkel’s conservatives hopeful Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will let go of the top job.