BERLIN, Oct 12 (AFP) - One of the top figures of Germany's conservative opposition announced his resignation from his main political posts Tuesday, aggravating a leadership crisis among Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's rivals.
Friedrich Merz said in a letter to the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Angela Merkel, he would step down as deputy head of the conservatives' parliamentary group and a member of the party's board.
The move, scheduled to take effect at the end of the year at the annual CDU party congress, was widely seen as a bombshell for the conservatives at a time when their robust lead over Schroeder's Social Democrats has been evaporating.
"Regardless of the personal difficulties we have, this is a bitter loss," Horst Seehofer of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, told Wednesday's issue of the Handelsblatt business daily.
"Merz is the best horse in the stable when it comes to his areas of expertise."
Merz, 48, did not provide a reason for his decision but speculation raged that a power struggle with Merkel, often mentioned as the likely challenger to Schroeder in the 2006 national election, had come to a head.
The youthful tax expert, frequently viewed as the CDU's shadow finance minister, lost a highly public tussle with Merkel in 2002 after the conservatives' defeat in that year's general election. He was forced to hand her the leadership of the parliamentary group.
In a resignation letter addressed "Dear Angela," Merz said the CDU's goals of tax and health care reform -- frequent points of conflict with the CSU -- could best be realized "the less individual issues are overshadowed by personnel issues".
The daily Bild reported earlier that Merz, who will retain his seat in parliament, now planned to devote more time to his law practice in Cologne, western Germany.
A poll released last week by the independent Forsa institute showed the Christian Union parties leading the Social Democrats 40 percent to 29 percent -- a much tighter margin than the 20 percentage points than separated the parties much of this year.