Koehler elected German president

Former IMF head Horst Koehler was elected Germany's ninth post-war president by a special federal assembly yesterday in a ballot marred by a row over a Nazi-era judge who sentenced World War Two deserters to death.

Mr Koehler (seen here with his wife Eva on top of Berlin's Reichstag parliametary building), who quit as managing director of the International Monetary Fund in March to run for the largely ceremonial office, won narrowly with 604 votes from the 1,204-member assembly.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's candidate Gesine Schwan, who got 589 votes and at least seven from Mr Koehler's side, was beaten in what the opposition hope will be a harbinger for ousting the Social Democrat-Greens government in a 2006 general election.

But Mr Koehler quickly dampened those hopes, telling German television that he would suspend his conservative party membership. He also praised Mr Schroeder's economic reforms.

"I'm not going to be an instrument for a change in government and if some are saying that, it's their business," Mr Koehler said.

"That's not my view of the office. I see it as non-partisan and within weeks there won't be doubts about that."