Germany's Schroeder says Merkel poor leader

BERLIN, Oct 21 (Reuters) Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Saturday ''a lack of leadership'' by his conservative successor Angela Merkel was to blame for problems plaguing the grand coalition that his party supports.

Although it is unusual for retired German leaders to criticise their successors, Schroeder, 62, broke with those traditions and went further, belittling Merkel's foreign policy.

In one of his first interviews since losing power, Schroeder, now a businessman who holds no office and has ruled out any return to politics, said he expects Merkel's right-left government that his Social Democrats are part of to stay together despite turbulence ntil the election due in 2009.

''There's simply a lack of leadership,'' Schroeder said of Merkel ahead of the release of his memoirs next week, arguing that it was the cause of the coalition's woes that raised doubts about its durability just a year after it was formed.

''And that's created an incredible amount of disillusionment throughout the CDU,'' he told Der Spiegel magazine in remarks that raised eyebrows because his SPD is part of her government.

The CDU quickly fired back at Schroeder.

''Attacking his successor and indirectly his own party shows he has failed to come to terms with losing his office,'' said Volker Kauder, CDU parliamentary floor leader.

The CDU and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) have plunged to six-year lows in polls.

''The problem in the CDU at the moment is not only the fact the coalition agreement they got stuck with is little more than a moderate version of the SPD programme, which certainly annoys parts of the CDU already,'' Schroeder told Der Spiegel.

''But what really bothers CDU supporters the most is they've been suckered in by the bragging of their own leaders that they are 'masters of their trade'. They see the opposite is true.'' Schroeder also criticised Merkel's foreign policy.

He said sarcastically ''Way to go!'' when asked by Der Spiegel about Merkel's warmer relations with US President George W Bush and said ''Wow, that really impressed China!'' when asked about Merkel's criticism of China's human rights record.

REUTERS AB BST2043