Germany's SPD confirms candidate

Steinmeier: "This new time that is dawning now has to become our time"

Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) has endorsed Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as its candidate for chancellor in next year's election.

Mr Steinmeier will take on the current Chancellor, Angela Merkel of the centre-right Christian Democrats.

The two parties share power in a coalition government.

The SPD has been trailing in the polls but the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Berlin says the global financial crisis has given the party a new lease of life.

At the party's congress in the German capital, Mr Steinmeier said the crisis showed that the reign of radical market ideology had ended with a bang, and a new era had begun.

"This new time that is dawning now has to become our time, the time of social democracy," he said.

"We are experiencing a time of decisions now, now it depends on us. In one year, I want to be working as chancellor so that we can steer our country in the right direction."

Awkward position

Mr Steinmeier accused Mrs Merkel's party of trying to appear more socially democratic since the financial crash, although in the past, he said, it had opposed stricter regulation of the markets.

But our correspondent says Mr Steinmeier is in an awkward position, as for now he is still a member of the chancellor's cabinet and shares responsibility for its decisions - which limits his ability to criticise his future opponent in public.

He adds that Mr Steinmeier did not mention Mrs Merkel's name once in his speech.

The congress also saw the SPD choose the veteran politician Franz Muenterfing as its new chairman.