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BERLIN, Oct 13: Germany's new government line-up began to take shape Thursday as the Social Democrats started filling posts allocated to them in the country's first left-right administration after the Schroeder era, report agencies.
Hans Eichel, the outgoing finance minister, said he would be replaced in the powerful position by Peer Steinbrueck, former premier of the regional state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
"Peer Steinbrueck will do a very good job of it, I'm certain," Eichel told journalists before entering a meeting of the Social Democrat party leadership to discuss the distribution of posts.
Meanwhile Social Democrat sources said party leader Franz Muntefering would become the government's number two as vice chancellor under conservative leader Angela Merkel.
Although Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats, is to become chancellor -- the first woman in German history to hold the post -- the accord that sees Gerhard Schroeder stepping down after seven years in power gives his SPD eight cabinet seats.
Official announcements by the Social Democrats on who will fill their posts are expected within hours, but a few names were already leaking out.
A tearful Schroeder bade farewell to the nation Wednesday as he addressed a trade union summit in Hanover, saying he would support Merkel's government but would not serve in it.
As vice chancellor, Muentefering will have a key role in shaping the overall approach of the government and challenging aspects of conservative policy the Social Democrats oppose.
Steinbrueck however will be taking on the often thankless task of managing Germany's spiralling deficit at the finance ministry.
The Social Democrats, who won just four seats fewer than Merkel's Christian Democrat alliance in bitterly-contested September 18 elections, had hoped that Schroeder would agree to become vice chancellor.
But he said he saw his role merely as helping steer his party through the tricky coalition talks, expected to last about a month and designed to draw up a formal government programme.
As well as finance, the SPD are expected to get the major posts of foreign affairs, justice and labour as well as health, environment, transport and aid and cooperation.
The Christian Democrats will have six posts -- economy, interior, defence, agriculture, education and family, as well as the speaker's chair.
Their only confirmed new minister so far is at economy, where conservative Bavarian state premier Edmund Stoiber will exchange Germany's wealthiest region for the reins of a national economy that is Europe's biggest but is stagnating badly.
Stoiber has vowed to "draw on my experience in Bavaria to create a dynamic economy for the whole of Germany".
Several SPD figures have been mentioned as likely replacements for Joschka Fischer, the respected current foreign minister who announced shortly after the September vote that he was leaving the political frontline.
A favourite is Matthias Platzeck, a rising star of German politics and the Social Democrat state premier of Brandenburg, the region surrounding Berlin.
The jockeying for the ministries come amid speculation Merkel will fail to contain the clashing egos and policies in the left-right coalition, something last seen in Germany in the 1960s.
Her key ally Stoiber has tried to reassure her, telling reporters that "she will be a good chancellor and will have me ... by her side all the way."
Germany's new foreign minister in its new left-right coalition government will be Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a close ally of outgoing Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, senior party sources said Thursday.
The leader of Germany's Social Democrats, Franz Muentefering, will become the country's vice chancellor and labour minister in the new coalition government, a senior party official confirmed Thursday.
Peer Steinbrueck, former Social Democrat premier of the regional state of North Rhine-Westphalia, will succeed Hans Eichel as German finance minister, Eichel revealed Thursday.
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