Schroeder-Merkel power struggle simmers on

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative challenger Angela Merkel have held talks that both sides called helpful – but they did not resolve their dispute over who should be the country’s next leader.

Merkel came out of yesterday’s meeting at the Reichstag parliament building looking relaxed and describing the talks as “constructive and serious,” while Franz Muentefering, head of Schroeder’s Social Democratic Party, called the preliminary discussions “fruitful".