German conservative leader Angela Merkel is to become the country's first woman chancellor under a deal hammered out by her party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the German media reported on Monday.

Merkel "apparently has a green light to be the next German leader" after the SPD agreed Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) will "supply the new head of the government," German news agency DPA quoted sources as saying.

Merkel and SPD leaders are expected to hold separate press conferences later Monday after meeting top aides and holding another face-to-face meeting.

The two parties will announce the deal on the formation of a new government at their press conferences.

But Germany's election law prescribes that the chancellor should be elected by the Bundestag or the low house of the parliament.

Therefore, an agreement between the SPD and CDU/CSU is "not a done deal" as several SPD members have vowed to vote against Merkelin the Bundestag.

Reports said incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder appeared over the weekend to be ready to step aside to make way for Merkel to be elected the new chancellor.

In return, the CDU has agreed to concede half of all cabinet posts to the SPD.

Before the new round of talks, the SPD searched its ranks for candidate to take the post of vice chancellor and possibly that of foreign minister in the new government.

Matthias Platzeck, popular SPD premier of Brandenburg, turned down a request from party leaders that he take the post of vice chancellor, which is likely the SPD standard bearer in the new government.

He told Berlin's daily Tagesspiegel on Sunday that he had promised the Brandenburg voters to stay on his post after winning in a recent state reelection.

Powerful SPD members, such as Interior Minister Otto Schily, have argued for Schroeder to remain in the post of chancellor for another two years before handing it to Merkel.

The two parties have been engaging for a grand coalition as both camps failed to win majority votes in the Sept. 18 elections.

Schroeder, SPD Chairman Franz Muentefering, Merkel and Edmund Stoiber, leader of CDU's Bavaria-based sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) are attending the meeting on Monday.

The two sides has edged closer on key issues such as the labor market reform, social welfare system and public finances.

The German political crisis resulted from the Sept. 18 elections, in which neither the SPD-Green coalition nor the CDU/CSU-FDP alliance won a majority.

The CDU/CSU seized 226 seats in the Bundestag, four more than that of the SPD.

After attempts to join hands with smaller parties failed, the SPD and CDU/CSU have sought to forge a grand coalition government, once taking place between 1966 and 1969.

Source: Xinhua