German SPD leader breaks customs, backs Obama

BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) and the centre-left party's putative chancellor candidate broke with German political custom on Saturday and said he hoped the United States elects Barack Obama in November.

SPD chairman Kurt Beck said the whole world would be better off with a President Obama instead of another Republican administration. By endorsing the Democrats, Beck broke a tacit rule to refrain from any intervention in foreign elections.

"I'd like to say very openly that I really do hope that he wins," Beck told journalists after a speech in the eastern town of Erfurt.

"It would be good for the whole world if there is an America that doesn't close itself off to the environmental challenges we face, an America that doesn't veto social and ecological programmes or does not support them.

"I'd be delighted if we would have an America like that, an America that wants to tackle those problems," said Beck, who is far behind conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel in opinion polls and may opt to appoint his more popular deputy Frank-Walter Steinmeier as chancellor candidate in 2009's vote.

Even though the left-leaning SPD is a natural partner to the U.S. Democrats, German leaders on both the left and right have strictly avoided taking sides in any foreign elections, especially with the United States.

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Beck's predecessor as SPD chairman, was long ostracized by President George W. Bush's administration for his outspoken opposition to any invasion of Iraq, calls that were ignored in Washington.

Schroeder nevertheless refrained after that from making even any hint of an endorsement for the Democrats in 2004.

(Reporting by Sarah Kuhnert; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Charles Dick)