Germany's first woman Chancellor

German conservative leader Angela Merkel was confirmed as Chancellor in a parliamentary vote yesterday. Below are highlights of her political career.

1989 - As East German communism crumbles, Ms Merkel, a physicist by training, joins the opposition Democratic Awakening movement.

March 1990 - Deputy spokesman for the government of conservative Lothar de Maiziere, last Prime Minister of East Germany before unification.

August 1990 - Joins Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic (CDU) party.

December 1990 - Elected to federal Parliament of the reunified Germany.

1991 - Becomes the youngest member of Kohl Cabinet as Minister for Women and Youth. Attracts wide German media coverage when Mr Kohl takes her with him on visit to the US in September, a sign of her fast-rising status. In December, Ms Merkel is elected deputy CDU leader at age 37.

1994 - Becomes Environment Minister.

1995 - Hosts UN climate conference in Berlin at which governments agree to set up procedure for cutting greenhouse gases, though without setting specific targets.

1998 - Survives calls for her resignation over the government's handling of a scandal surrounding contaminated nuclear waste shipments.

November 1998 - Elected CDU general secretary, top organisational post, after the party's election defeat to Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats ends its 16 years in power.

April 2000 - Elected leader of CDU, replacing Wolfgang Schaeuble, after party is rocked by scandal over illegal funding.

2002 - Ms Merkel gives up the race to become conservative election candidate, clearing the way for Edmund Stoiber - leader of CDU's Bavarian sister party - to lead the challenge to Mr Schroeder. Stoiber narrowly loses the September election.

May 2005 - Chosen as conservative candidate for Chancellor after Mr Schroeder brings forward parliamentary elections by a year to September.

September 2005 - Ms Merkel's conservatives narrowly edge Mr Schroeder's SPD in a general election but are forced into coalition talks with them because they lack the votes to form a government with their preferred partners.

November 2005 - Ms Merkel's conservatives seal a coalition agreement with the SPD, paving the way for her to become the first woman Chancellor and first from the communist east.