Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, has become the first woman chancellor in Germany's history. The following is a profile of the new chancellor.

Merkel was born in the western port city of Hamburg on July 17, 1954. Six weeks after she was born, her father received a pastorship at a church and moved the family to the East German town of Templin, some 80 km from Berlin.

Merkel grew up and received her early education in Templin before she went to the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973-1978.

She joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the late 1980s. After German reunification in 1990, Kohl made her the cabinet minister for women and youth.

In 1994, she was appointed minister for the environment and reactor safety.

Merkel became secretary-general of the CDU after Kohl was defeated in the 1998 elections and took the helm of the party in 2000. She has been the party leader ever since.

Merkel has vowed to shake up Germany's welfare mechanism and strip down its cumbersome bureaucracy. She has also pledged to restore ties with Washington that were strained by incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's vocal opposition to the US-led war on Iraq.

Merkel has been compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was once referred to as the "Iron Lady", because both are female politicians from center-right parties.

In forming her grand coalition government, Merkel made concessions in negotiations with the SPD on various policies but she stood firm on policies which were not part of the deal.

She is married to Joachim Sauer, a chemistry professor from Berlin. The couple have no children.