Where to CDU?

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to outline the CDU's position as a centrist party in a keynote speech to 1,000 delegates on Monday ahead of her re-election as party chairman.

"All the resolutions will show that the CDU is a people's party of the center," the chancellor said during a tour of the congress hall in the eastern city of Dresden on Sunday afternoon.

The run-up to the gathering was overshadowed by a dispute over what direction the party should take after its first 12 months in government, following seven years in opposition.

Powerful rivals to Merkel want the conservative CDU to adopt a more socially-oriented profile, while other key members have warned against taking a turn to the left.

In her address, Merkel is expected to underscore the CDU's position as a centrist party of different streams, encompassing Christian social values, economic liberalism and conservatism.

Who benefits from grand coalition?

Some critics of the chancellor claim the measures adopted by her government over the past year bear more the stamp of the CDU's center-left coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD).

Despite a buoyant economy that has helped create more jobs, Merkel has seen her popularity slump, with opinion polls showing more than two thirds of Germans dissatisfied with the performance of her government.

One of the supporters of a more socially-oriented CDU is Jürgen Rüttgers, premier of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, and a potential rival to Merkel in a future contest for the party leadership.

Rüttgers surprised the party last month with a controversial proposal that older people out of out work should receive unemployment benefit over a longer period than younger workers made redundant.

Caution against moving too far to the left

Rüttgers argued that older workers had contributed more to the state unemployment fund over the years than younger ones and should therefore get more out of it.

On the other side of the political spectrum is the CDU's business-oriented wing led by Günther Oettinger, prime minister of Baden Württemberg, where DaimlerChrysler has its headquarters.

Oettinger has cautioned the party against moving to the left and wants do see Germany's strict rules on employment protection loosened in order to make it easier for firms to hire and fire, saying this will create more jobs.

Foreign topics include EU expansion, Afghanistan

In Tuesday's debate on foreign policy, the party is expected to call for a freeze on European Union enlargement after Bulgaria and Romania join in January - at least until the moribund EU constitution is approved.

Delegates could make an exception for Croatia, but would underscore their view that Turkey be granted associate status instead of the full EU membership that Ankara hopes for, party sources said.

Afghanistan is likely to be a hotly debated issue, following calls by fellow NATO members for Germany to take on a more active role in the troubled south where intense fighting has been going on with remnants of the ousted Taliban regime.

Germany has been successful with its provincial reconstruction teams of mixed military and civil groups in the relatively quiet north and is reluctant to dispatch troops to the south.

Germany has around 2,900 troops in Afghanistan serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).