Germany’s opposition leader Angela Merkel and the chairman of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party made the first contacts with potential coalition partners in a scramble for power after Germany’s inconclusive election.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was squaring off today with his challengers in their last debate before Germany’s election as a new poll showed his Social Democrats continuing to edge forward.

The former communists of East Germany are to take their first share of power in the capital since it was reunited more than a decade ago.