BERLIN (AFP) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats lost local elections in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia but appeared to have halted their recent slide at the ballot box.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won the polls, forecasts showed as counting continued, but lost along the way several voters who had supported the conservatives in the last elections in Germany's most populous state in 1999.
While the Social Democrats (SPD) recorded their worst score there, they cut their losses from the rout last time in the home of the industrial Ruhr basin -- a traditional stronghold where they control the regional parliament.
"The result is a good foundation for the future," said SPD chairman Franz Muentefering.
According to computer projections by WDR regional television, the centre-left party scored about 31.4 percent, down from 33.9 percent in 1999.
The CDU retained power at local level with around 43.4 percent and kept control in the state capital Duesseldorf, but its score was a significant drop of almost seven percentage points from 50.3 percent.
Meanwhile the Greens party appeared to be a big winner, scoring around 10 percent, up from 7.3 percent, while the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) were ahead too winning about seven percent, up from 4.3 percent last time.
The former communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) slightly improved its score to around one percent from 0.8 percent.
Turnout was a disappointing 53.5 percent, compared to 54.3 percent five years ago.
Some 14 million voters were eligible to choose 15,000 local representatives, including mayors, in some 400 cities, towns and communities.
In electoral districts where no candidate won an absolute majority, a run-off vote between the two leading scorers will be held on October 10.
The local polls were seen as an important dress rehearsal for elections to the state assembly in May 2005. Any big loss would be a disaster for the SPD.
In not losing by too much, the party won a psychological victory Sunday following a string of defeats since Schroeder's SPD-Greens, the so-called Red-Green, coalition was narrowly re-elected in 2002.
It has seen its popularity slump faster than any other governing party since World War II and has been unable to redress high unemployment or greatly improve the eurozone's biggest, but badly performing, economy.
After scoring its worst score in a nationwide poll in European Parliament elections in June, the centre-left party hit a four-decade low in the state of Saarland at the beginning of the month.
But it scraped through two ballots last weekend in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony, although many voters turned to far-right and left parties, and officials are quietly confident in a revival.
"The party has found its bite," said SPD state party chief Harald Schartau said after polling stations closed.
For the CDU, however, the result will only feed fears that it too is suffering from a deeper popularity crisis.
The conservatives also took a slide in Saxony and Brandenburg last weekend and pressure is now mounting on federal opposition leader Angela Merkel.
Merkel, however, showed no signs of anxiety. "It's not about beauty prizes, it's about majorities," she told ZDF television.
State CDU party chairman Juergen Ruettgers was also confident. "The end of the Red-Green state government and Premier Peer Steinbrueck will come in May next year," he said.
Contrary to federal and state elections, the local polls saw people as young as 16 vote and, for the first time since the European Union enlarged in May, a large number of people from Poland who are living in the Ruhr basin.