May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Lower Saxony Prime Minister Christian Wulff, a member of Germany's opposition Christian Democratic Union, said he expects the opposition to name CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel as their candidate to challenge Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in an early national election.

``I would be very surprised'' if she wasn't the candidate, Wulff told reporters before a meeting of the CDU's executive board in Berlin today.

Schroeder said yesterday he'll seek to hold a national election a year early this fall after his Social Democratic Party was ousted from power in an election in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, ending its 39-year rule there.

The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, will officially decide on May 30 on their candidate to challenge Schroeder. Merkel missed out on the chance to run for chancellor at the last national election in 2002 when she stood aside for CSU leader Edmund Stoiber, who is also Bavarian prime minister.

To contact the reporters on this story: Claudia Rach in Berlin at crach1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 23, 2005 03:24 EDT