Koehler presidential win boosts Merkel's CDU

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Former IMF chief Horst Koehler was re-elected as German president on Saturday with a narrow one-vote victory that boosted Chancellor Angela Merkel four months before a parliamentary election.

Koehler's re-election by a special federal assembly in the Reichstag parliament building, ahead of a Social Democrat rival, gave Merkel's conservatives an important morale-lifting triumph as the campaign for the September 27 vote looms.

He got 613 votes in the 1,224-seat assembly, winning by the narrowest majority in the first of three possible rounds of voting after a testy year-long political battle that put strains on Merkel's grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD).

"Obviously I'm pleased he won in the first round," a beaming Merkel said after her conservatives joined forces in the vote with the opposition liberal Free Democrats (FDP)-- the party she wants as her coalition partner, replacing the SPD, after the election.

"It's no secret that we're eager to have a different majority in parliament (in September). That was our goal here and we accomplished it. It's good news for Germany."

Merkel's CDU has ruled for the past four years in a loveless grand coalition with the SPD, who backed university president Gesine Schwan in Saturday's vote. The SPD is also eager to see the grand coalition ended.

Koehler's 613 votes was exactly the number he needed to win re-election as Germany's ceremonial head of state.

Schwan won 503 votes. Narrowly beaten by Koehler in 2004, she had hoped to siphon away enough conservative votes to win -- or at least force a second and third round where her chances for an upset win were expected to rise.