Campaign starts in state election crucial to Schroeder aims

Campaigning began yesterday in a crucial German state election which could determine the identity of Dr Helmut Kohl's main challenger in September's federal election. Lower Saxony's Social Democrat premier, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, has promised to abandon his aim to become the SPD candidate for chancellor if his vote falls by more than 2 per cent in the March 1st state election.

Mr Schroeder was accompanied on the campaign trail yesterday by his chief rival, the Social Democrat party chairman, Mr Oskar Lafontaine.

In an interview in today's edition of the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, Mr Schroeder suggests that the party should choose its candidate immediately after the Lower Saxony election.

Opinion polls suggest that Mr Schroeder could increase his vote by 1 per cent in March but Dr Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU) are expected to mount a vigorous campaign to thwart him.

The opposition received a boost on Saturday when delegates at a Green party congress voted to remain part of a coalition government with the Social Democrats in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. The coalition looked set to fall apart following a sharp disagreement between the two partners over plans to relocate 7,500 people from 11 towns in order to build a 48 square metre strip mine.

The Greens argued that it was environmentally damaging and based on faulty economic reasoning.

A collapse of the red-green coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia would have been deeply embarrassing for leaders of both parties, who are eager to persuade voters that Social Democrats and Greens will be able to work together effectively at a national level to solve Germany's severe economic problems.