Germany marks 40th anniversary of Berlin Wall

Germany is marking the 40th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to lay a wreath at the main wall memorial.

Meanwhile his party, the Social Democrats, faces criticism for pondering a local Government coalition in Berlin with the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).

"Whoever makes a coalition with the PDS is making a pact with the socialism of the East German communist party," Edmund Stoiber, governor of Bavaria and head of the Christian Social Union, told hundreds of invited guests at the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing.

Christian Democratic party chairwoman Angela Merkel said: "Berlin must stay free, that's our message on this day."

All major German parties have called the PDS to task for refusing to apologise directly to the victims of the country's division. Some sources estimate that nearly 1,000 people died trying to flee to the west, including 250 of those at the wall itself.

Instead, the PDS has said killings of people trying to leave were "inhuman" and has expressed regret for "injustice" carried out by former East German rulers - who closed the border between East and West Berlin on August 13, 1961, to stem the flood of people leaving for the West.

The apology debate has taken on greater weight with the coming city elections in October.

The PDS won 40% of the vote in eastern Berlin in the last election in 1999, and 17.7% overall.

Interim Mayor Klaus Wowereit, a Social Democrat who took office after a coalition with the Christian Democrats collapsed in June, governs now in a minority Government with the Greens party - maintaining power with the consent of the PDS.

But he has not ruled out a possible coalition with PDS after the election.

Mr Schroeder has repeatedly ruled out cooperating with the PDS at the national level, where the party of ex-communists won 5.1% of parliament seats in the 1998 elections.