Press gripped by poll drama

The paper goes on to say the nervousness will last for some time yet as the parties get down to their talks over forming a coalition.

But although Mr Schroeder emerged the winner, the daily is far from generous to him. "Gerhard Schroeder has not really earned this chance," it says. During their previous government "he distanced himself so often from the Greens, he humiliated them, he gave the impression that this coalition was an embarrassment to him."

But in the end "he has been saved by the Greens and their top candidate Joschka Fischer".

Victory for Greens

Berlin's left-leaning Tageszeitung is cock-a-hoop over the Greens' showing in the poll and the fact that it beat the liberal FDP into fourth place. It calls it "a victory for the political culture" in Germany.

"The voters have treated the Red-Green allies softly. They punished Schroeder's unkept promise to reduce unemployment - but not as drastcally as many in the SPD feared."

"The electorate knows," the paper continues, "that our individualised society is difficult to direct, and you can not govern without trial and error, without making mistakes."

The Tageszeitung also casts a glance at the fate of the reformed communist PDS, which failed to clear the 5% barrier. "The PDS has only itself to blame for its losses... no ideas, no personalities."

A lot to do

The mass circulation Bild tabloid draws some comfort from the result and looks to the future. "Germany, get cracking!", it shouts.

"The most important message from the election:

there is no place for extremists in the German parliament... The democratic vote will earn Germany sympathy and respect in the world."

Bild believes that there is a lot to do now for the new government. "Germany urgently needs the courage to act instead of standing still and agonising. It needs fresh ideas instead of unimaginative cost-cutting. It needs optimism instead of depression."

The Berlin right-of-centre paper Die Welt sees the challenger Edmund Stoiber and Greens leader Joschka Fischer emerging as the true winners of the election.

"Stoiber has led his party back from the abyss it faced two years ago," it says referring to the funding scandal surrounding former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Fischer scarcely put a foot wrong in the campaign, Die Welt says.

"He presented the image of an old, honest pop star who got his fans together again for a classic concert."

The paper is not impressed with the Chancellor however. "Gerhard Schroeder looked disenchanted... what awaits him is an economic mess and a foreign policy disaster."

Uncertain times ahead

The Berliner Zeitung wonders how long a new Red-Green government will last. "Can the Red-Greens govern with such a small majority?" it asks.

"The danger will be that a coalition with such a majority will only be able to administer the status quo, it will not be able to push through any decisive reforms."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.