Breaking from his normally polite, soft-spoken manner, Steinmeier frequently interrupted presenter Anne Will. When Will presented him with a video clip of SPD activists questioning his ability to energise the party, Steinmeier tried to sell his "seriousness" as a vote-winning virtue. Perhaps the oddest moment came at the very end, when an unemployed man from eastern Germany complained about his struggles to find work. After quizzing the gas fitter about his search, Steinmeier announced that he had "two or three ideas" about jobs in the man's region and promised to personally take charge of finding him a job.  To derisive chuckles, his spokesman was asked at a regular government news conference on Monday whether Germany's other 3.5 million jobless could count on the SPD candidate to personally sort out their work woes. No, the spokesman said, shifting uneasily in his chair: "The situation yesterday was very special." 

German media were ruthless in their verdict on the man one newspaper called "Mr Colourless". "The SPD candidate has rarely looked less confident," Spiegel magazine said in its online version. Berlin daily Tagesspiegel said: "Frank-Walter Steinmeier's suffering continues and we suffer with him." Vice Chancellor in Merkel's uneasy grand coalition government, Steinmeier has tried over the last few weeks to carve out a new image for himself as a staunch defender of German workers. He pushed aggressively for the government to rescue carmaker Opel, which it did, and backed similar treatment for retail group Arcandor until it became clear that wouldn't fly. The European vote made clear his party is not winning points on the issue. The SPD scored a record-low 20.8 percent on Sunday, compared to 37.9 percent for Merkel's conservative bloc.

"People. You can watch the soccer in peace. The election round has worked," conservative MP Julia Kloeckner wrote on Twitter, 10 minutes before parliamentary president Norbert Lammert announced that Koehler had scored a one vote victory and defeated the Social Democrat (SPD) candidate Gesine Schwan. Kloeckner's SPD colleague Ulrich Kelber even announced the results on Twitter three minutes earlier -- including the exact vote count. Germany's president has largely representational functions, but Saturday's election was seen as a test of party discipline for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives four months ahead of a federal election. Merkel's allies only held a one seat majority in the special election assembly, and Koehler's failure to secure a majority in the first round would have triggered a second vote.

That prospect seemed impossible to many observers, however, when musicians and staff with flower bouquets had already entered the assembly before Lammert announced the result. Bild daily called Koehler's election the "Twitter-flower bouquet-brass band affair".  "It's undignified for musicians and ushers to take away the result of the presidential election in advance," SPD parliamentarian Christian Lange told the daily Die Welt.  SPD deputy Sebastian Edathy called on Lammert to apologise for the organisational problems. The twittering Kloeckner said she was sorry she had sent her online message, telling Bild: "The timing was a bit early, even though the pictures told their own story." 

Merkel however shrugged off the incident, saying apparently television viewers had been able to see more of what was going on in the assembly than she had. "I just sat in my seat and waited (for the results)," she said. Horst Seehofer from Merkel's Bavarian CSU sister party took an even lighter stance on the event, signalling it might help revise some prejudices people held against his countrymen. "It's OK for Germans not to be perfect in everything. It's OK to be human sometimes," he said.

Angela Merkel, Germany's first chancellor to have grown up in communist East Germany, praised the "historic dimension" of the summit, which marks the 60th anniversary of the military alliance and comes 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "Memories of Wall and barbed wire (make us realise) Germany has to thank NATO and its allies' solidarity for a lot... Re-unified Germany celebrates 20 years of German and European happiness," the 54-year-old told parliament. Merkel said the summit, held in the French city of Strasbourg and the German towns of Kehl and Baden-Baden across the river Rhine, would take place where "German and French once stood as bitter enemies... and are now united in friendship". 

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, 60, who grew up in West Germany, revealed his memories of NATO and the Cold War this week, telling journalists about his feelings as a young German soldier when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. "If something had happened then, Germans would have stood against Germans. We were in NATO and the people now living in Germany's eastern states were in the NVA (the German Democractic Republic's military). "We were trained to stand against each other," he said. "From there, we've come to create an army of unity in Germany. That's a great achievement," he said, referring to Germany's growing role within NATO.

But although the NATO summit will be high on symbolism -- its logo are elements of the bridge spanning the Rhine -- the  leaders meeting from Thursday will also address issues which are likely to cause friction and heated debate.  NATO's relationship to Russia is a disputed question. The alliance's choice of a new head has already sparked vivid debate. And partners will discuss their strategy to solve the violent conflict in Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama has already made clear he will seek fresh committments from partners for combat forces, trainers and equipment. And although the summit's two hosts, Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have both praised the meeting as a symbol of Franco-German friendship, they have clashed on a serious of economic and foreign policy issues in past months.

The "historic" summit marking 60 years of transatlantic friendship could turn into a pragmatic gathering dominated by topical and conflictual debates.

But well before Biden took the stage in the plush Munich hotel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the audience that he, at least, was already in the know about Biden's speech. As Biden watched on from the front row, Sarkozy deviated from his speech on France's policies towards NATO and the defence priorities of the European Union, and said with a smirk: "I already know what the vice-president will say ... because he sent me his manuscript in advance. "That's part of good management," Sarkozy said to loud laughter from the audience. Biden smiled, listening to Sarkozy's comments over headphones through a translator.

Biden delivered his speech about an hour later, saying the new U.S. administration was determined to set a new tone in America's relations around the world but also announcing it would ask for more from its partners. After talking about U.S. relations with Russia and Iran and detailing U.S. priorities in the Middle East, Biden turned towards Sarkozy, sitting in the audience. "We warmly welcome the decision by France to fully cooperate in our structures," Biden said, referring to Sarkozy's plans to return France to NATO's command structure. "That's the main reason the president got our speech," he added. Sarkozy, sitting in the front row, grinned uneasily and squirmed in his seat. 

It is not unusual for leaders to circulate speeches to allies or journalists before they deliver them, but it is unusual for politicians to reveal publicly they have seen them. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband seemed to know in advance what Sarkozy would say, telling Reuters a day before the
French leader's speech in Munich that he did not expect any major new announcement on NATO.    

 Jaap de Hoop Scheffer made sure no other leader revealed the details of his speech. Apparently, the NATO chief's remarks were only finished shortly before he actually delivered them.

(Photo/ U.S. Vice President Biden meets French President Sarkozy at the 45th Conference on Security Policy in Munich. Michael Dalder/Reuters)

German Chancellor Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice  Chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier will battle each other in September's federal election. But on Tuesday, it was hard to imagine the German odd couple campaigning against each other just a few months from now. The leaders of the two rival parties, locked in their loveless grand coalition since 2005, sat next to each other for 90 minutes, smiling politely as they jointly defended a new economic stimulus package their two ruling parties welded together.

"The campaign will start early enough," said Steinmeier, who also is Germany's foreign minister. "What we have presented here shows that the parties in this coalition act responsibly." Merkel, nodding approvingly in response to several of  Steinmeier's "we're-on-the-same-team" type of answers at the nationally televisioned news conference, added: "This is a good package. Everybody has made their contribution." 

Those looking for some pre-election darts being flung were disappointed. It was all smiles between the future rivals. Steinmeier and Merkel are used to presenting a common German policy line at international meetings, such as European Union summits in Brussels. But the two rarely appear together at news conferences at home, where their parties' domestic platforms can differ more markedly. 

Their united front on Tuesday offered a curious start to Germany's "super election year", which features five state polls as well as September's federal election. The campaigns are expected to highlight their differences on economic policy. Both Steinmeier's Social Democrats (SPD) and Merkel's conservatives (CDU) had stressed their different economic priorities ahead of six-hour long talks on Monday that produced the new 50-billion euro stimulus package. 

But on Tuesday, Merkel and Steinmeier seemed content to celebrate the package as a joint effort and only referred to their parties' specific contributions in passing references. To the uninitiated it was sometimes hard to imagine they were from different parties about to fight over the future of Germany. Merkel called the package a "wise mix", specifically mentioning tax cuts her conservatives managed to push through against the SPD's initial opposition. Steinmeier, by contrast, predictably pointed out the relief for families and workers with lower incomes, which the conservatives had resisted ahead of the talks. 

Both the SPD and CDU have said they would rather avoid another four years of grand coalition rule after September's vote, with the conservatives hoping for a tie-up with the Free Democrats and the SPD preferring an alliance with the Greens. But pressed at the news conference for details on what each of them would have done better under their preferred government alliance, both Merkel and Steinmeier were evasive: they opted instead to defend the current government. 

"In this extraordinary situation, we have the duty to do our job well," Merkel said, although she added cryptically: "That doesn't mean that other constellations cannot act responsibly too." "We did what was necessary in this government," Steinmeier said, earning another approving nod from Merkel, who sat next to him. Steinmeier lags Merkel in opinion polls and some analysts say his role as her vice chancellor complicates his campaign because he finds it rather awkward to attack the leader of his own government. 

So when will Germany's main two candidates for the chancellorship take off the gloves and start really battling it out for the country's top job? How long will this united front last?

Ernst Uhrlau, who heads the BND foreign intelligence agency, Germany's equivalent of the CIA, says al Qaeda's "concept" has changed significantly over the past few years. "After the centralisation phase and the break-up of its bases in Afghanistan, when it had the backing of the Taliban government, we have seen a regionalisation over the past four years -- something like a franchise company."    "Today, there is al Qadea in the Maghreb, al Qaeda on the Arab Peninsula, in Iraq, in Yemen," Uhrlau told Reuters in an interview this week.

Uhrlau said many militant groups in those regions had decided to come under the roof of al Qaeda and were applying the group's strategy to "internationalise the victims and move beyond national struggle." Security analysts say they are closely watching the Maghreb region, highlighting recent attacks in Mauritania and Algeria for which al Qaeda claimed responsibility. "With this differentiated concept, they are more able to use regional strengths ... for the global jihad," Uhrlau said, mentioning recruiting efforts.

Pakistan had special significance for al Qaeda, with the group aiming to "attack the United States via Pakistan", Uhrlau said. "That's also being reflected in travel movements by Islamists. We see (them) not only (heading) to Iraq, but also to Pakistan and African regions." Some analysts say American success in Iraq against al Qaeda militants may also have diverted some recruits for the anti-Western cause to the Afghan conflict. U.S. General David McKiernan told Reuters in a recent interview foreign militants had imported sophisticated tactics to invigorate the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Overall, however, Uhrlau said al Qaeda had suffered serious setbacks through the arrests or killings of senior leaders in past years, which made it unlikely the group would be able to stage another attack of the scale of Sept. 11.  "International networks, and al Qaeda in particular, have been hurt in their ability to act and in their long-term ability to plan since Sept. 11. They have suffered significant and sustainable losses," he said, citing better intelligence. "That's why long-term preparations, movement of groups of people across borders are today a lot more difficult to organise," he said.

However, despite the setbacks for Qaeda and despite its decentralisation and structural changes, Uhrlau said one thing remained clear: "That does not mean that the aim of causing the largest
possible damage is no longer an al Qaeda concept."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a clear "I told you so!" to the United States and Britain at the weekend, criticising them in unusually frank terms for resisting measures that might have contained the current financial crisis. The conservative leader of Europe's largest economy reminded her partners that she had pushed for steps to boost the transparency of hedge funds during Germany's presidency of the Group of Eight last year. "We got things moving, but we didn't get enough support, especially in the United States and Britain," she told the Muenchner Merkur newspaper. Merkel expanded on her point in a speech in Austria, suggesting that both Washington and London were only now coming around to her view.

"It was said for a long time 'Let the markets take care of themselves' and that there is 'no need for more transparency'...Today we are a step further because even America and Britain are saying 'Yes, we need more transparency, we need better standards for the ratings agencies'.

Germany had made greater transparency a key theme of its rotating presidency of the G8, which includes the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia. Berlin had expressed fears that hedge funds could threaten the stability of the financial system through their heavy reliance on borrowing to finance risky trading strategies. But it ran into resistance from the United States and Britain, achieving little.

Whether Merkel's G8 initiative could have averted or limited the current financial market crisis if it had been successful is certainly debatable. But reminding voters that she had sought to address the problem as early as last year could help Merkel score points on the domestic front ahead of a general election next year. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) rule in an uneasy grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), and both sides have been trying to play up their own role as crisis manager in the current financial market turmoil.

Both Merkel and her SPD finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, have tried to take credit for Germany's efforts last year to agree better transparency rules for financial markets. SPD budget expert Carsten Schneider praised Steinbrueck's efforts during Germany's G8 presidency in a newspaper interview on Monday, adding: "At the time, the United States and Britain demonised every effort to agree more transparency and rules."

As Germany's election approaches, the "I told you so!" Berlin seemed to send to Washington and London on the weekend could turn into an "I told you so first!"-competition between Merkel's CDU and her SPD rivals.

The dispute, which the Jerusalem Post dubbed a case of "kosher anti-Semitism," started back in May when Broder posted a letter on the website Die Achse des Guten (The Axis of Good) complaining to WDR radio in Cologne for interviewing Hecht-Galinski for a programme on Israel's 60th anniversary. In her comments, Hecht-Galinski compared Israel's policy towards Palestinians to Nazi policy towards Jews. Broder wrote: "Mrs EHG is an hysterical, egoistic housewife who is talking for nobody but herself and is uttering nothing but nonsense anyway. Her speciality are thoughtless anti-Semitic and anti-Zionistic statements, which are a fleeting fad once again."

Hecht-Galinksi obtained a court injunction against him calling her an anti-Semite (which explains why the adjective "anti-Semitic" has since been xxx'ed out of Broder's letter on the web). She argued that Broder, an active defender of Israel who has written a series of books dealing with the relationship between Germans and Jews, was trying to silence criticism of Israel. "Especially in the face of our common past, critical comments on committed injustices must be possible, also if they concern Israel," she wrote in a letter to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Broder challenged the injunction and declined to settle out of court, telling the Jerusalem Post that he opposed a deal "allowing anti-Semites to decide what anti-Semitism is. It is as if pedophiles can decide what real love toward children is."

In the end, the court issued a split decision that German media rated as a partial victory for Broder. The comments in question constituted offensive criticism, it ruled, so the injunction should be upheld. "A comparable statement with the necessary factual context would ... be allowed," it added. Just where the dividing line between the personal attack and free speech would have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Seeing two Jews fight over who is an anti-Semite was uncomfortable for Germans, especially for the media who often ask German Jews to comment on the news from Israel. The conservative daily Die Welt drew an interesting conclusion from the dispute. "The whole thing is shameful for a large section of the non-Jewish German media who actually prefer to let Jews do the talking so they don't have to take a controversial position in the minefield of German-Israeli-Jewish relations," commentator Clemens Wergin wrote. "The lesson from this affair is that it's time for non-Jews to have a more vigorous debate about Israel and stop using German or other Jews as their representatives. Whoever believes in the power of the better argument need not shy away from disputes, and needs no Jews as a fig leaf."

If two German Jews can't agree on what anti-Semitism is, can a court -- and a German court at that -- do any better?

Germany's general election may still be a year away, but the challengers are already battling it out for the big political prize on unlikely territory -- at Euro 2008.

Both conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democratic rival, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, are going to great lengths to associate themselves with the German team.

Steinmeier surprised journalists during a trip to China last week when he converted an ordinary fuel stop in Helsinki into a soccer-watching party.

Eager to catch Germany's match against Croatia, Steinmeier had his China-bound plane roll to the door of a VIP lounge at Helsinki Airport immediately upon landing just before half-time, where a giant TV screen was set up for the ambitious foreign minister, his accompanying aides and journalists.

Cringing when Croatia went ahead 2-0, Steinmeier jumped up from his front row seat and headed for the door, grumbling: 'The fuel tank must be full by now.' But it turned out he was only joking. He sat back down in time to see Germany pull one back before ultimately losing 2-1.

Just days later, Merkel, Steinmeier (wearing a tacky tie with the red, black and gold German colours) and four other equally ambitious ministers from Merkel's cabinet flew to Vienna to watch Germany's next match against Austria. 

Merkel clearly enjoyed the game -- as much as being in the spotlight. German TV kept cutting away to Merkel, chatting first with suspended midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and then with coach Joachim Loew, banished to the stands by the referee.

"Merkel knows her stuff," Schweinsteiger was quoted as as saying by Bild, a paper that once hailed Merkel's ability to explain the off-side rule. "She pointed out that Philipp Lahm kept getting free on the left."

Merkel's predecessors Gerhard Schroeder, a gritty striker who played semi-pro football as a young law student, and Helmut Kohl were never shy about trying to attach themselves to the national team that has won three World Cups and three European Championships -- knowing how priceless images of them posing with successful teams are.

With the 2009 election looming it seems Merkel and Steinmeier are pulling out all the stops. But you have to wonder how close they'll want to be if Germany get knocked out in the quarter-finals by Portugal?

PHOTO: Germany's coach Joachim Loew (C) speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the Group B Euro 2008 match against Austria in Vienna, June 16, 2008. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach