German Ruling Party Suffers Fresh Losses As Far Right Posts Gains

BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats suffered fresh losses in elections in two former communist states as parties from the extreme right and far left posted strong gains.

Schroeder's SPD lost about six percentage points on its 1999 result in Brandenburg, the vast state surrounding Berlin in the former East Germany, according to exit polls compiled by the ZDF and ARD public television channels.

In Saxony, it dropped slightly to about 10 percent of the vote as the neo-fascist National Democratic Party (NPD) surged to nine percent from just 1.4 percent five years ago.