German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats emerged as clear victors in the Berlin city election on Sunday, while his main opposition, the conservative Christian Democrats, suffered a stinging defeat. 
The vote gives Schroeder a major boost 11 months before the next general election. It reaffirms his mounting popularity as a result of tough security measures implemented in response to the September 11 hijack assaults on the U.S. 
The conservative Christian Democrats suffered a big blow that could eventually prove fatal for their embattled national leader Angela Merkel. 
Commentators said it has probably thwarted her bid to challenge Schroeder for the chancellorship next year, paving the way for Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber to become the party's champion in the general election. 
"The snipers will be out for her tomorrow," ZDF television said in a commentary. 
But some analysts cautioned that not too much should be read into the Berlin election, which has been distorted by security scares and the debate over the U.S. military response to the attacks. 
Hundreds of extra police have been deployed and miles of barriers put up to protect embassies and public buildings, changing the face of Berlin more than any other German city. 
By next year's election, the weakness of the German economy will have returned to the fore in voters' minds, analysts say. Some forecasts put unemployment above four million, well above Schroeder's pledge when he took office. 
The Social Democrats rose about seven points in Berlin from the last vote in October 1999 to 29.7 percent, according to official results with 97.4 percent of votes counted. 
Preliminary final results are expected around 2200 GMT. 
The Christian Democrats (CDU), fell about 17 points to 23.6 percent, one of their biggest election defeats ever. 
The heirs to the communists who built the Berlin Wall also gained, and could enter the city state government for the first time since unification. 
The debate about security and military strikes overshadowed local issues in a campaign which pitted three very different candidates for mayor against each other, including Germany's best-known homosexual and its most prominent ex-communist. 
Berliners are hoping for a new start after their city almost went bankrupt in a financial scandal at city-state owned Bankgesellschaft Berlin that brought down the previous, conservative-led government in June and left the city struggling under huge debts of 80 billion marks ($37 billion). 
Klaus Wowereit, the SPD politician who took over as acting mayor after the government collapsed in June and who outed himself as gay at the start of the campaign, is certain to be confirmed in office. 
The big quandary for Wowereit, and for his patron Schroeder, is who to form a coalition with. 
An alliance with the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) would probably create a more stable city government than the alternative, a three-way coalition with the Greens and liberal Free Democrats. 
Gregor Gysi, the PDS candidate for mayor, said "All signs indicate there will be a coalition of SPD and PDS." 
But that would be deeply unpopular across west Germany, where misgivings persist about the PDS history as successor to the party that ruled East Germany and build the Wall. 
In addition, a so-called "Red-Red" coalition in Berlin would embarrass Schroeder, whose unqualified support of U.S. military strikes clashes with equally clear opposition from the PDS. 
"I'm keeping all options open," said a beaming Wowereit, who will start talks over forming a government in coming days. 
The PDS gained about five points to 22.7 percent as the party caught votes from Germany's sizeable peace lobby. 
But its near 50 percent support in east Berlin contrasted with just six percent in the west, and shows how psychologically divided the city remains even though remaining stretches of the Wall are so scarce that tourists have trouble finding them. 
The CDU's debacle was caused in part by sleaze charges that tainted their party more than the SPD, which had ruled with them in a grand coalition in Berlin for more than a decade. 
But some of the blame will also be laid at the door of Merkel. "It is of course a black mark for the whole CDU," said Peter Loesche, a political scientist from Goettingen University. 
Loeche said Merkel would be blamed for letting the Berlin CDU field a weak candidate for mayor, Frank Steffel, a local politician who made a series of gaffes including calling Munich Germany's "secret capital." 
The Greens lost only slightly, to 9.2 from 9.9 percent, while the Free Democrats jumped to 9.6 percent from 2.2 percent, in a comeback that will enable the party to enter the city parliament and might make it an attractive partner for Schroeder at elections next year. (Additional reporting by Emma Thomasson)