Merkel seeks support

Even as Merkel prepared to ask her parliamentary party for fresh backing, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder reportedly urged a coup against his opponent, offering to drop out of the running to rule Germany but only if Merkel did the same.

"There has never been a chancellor who has sacrificed himself in order to clear the way to form a government. Schroeder would go down in the party's history as one of the greats," an unnamed leading member of Schroeder's Social Democratic Party told the top-selling Bild newspaper.