Realizing he was unlikely to be Geneva-bound, the commerce minister quickly reasserted himself domestically.

CNN: THE FEUDING MINISTERS

Top Social Democrats who look bound to nose into his patch include Rudolf Scharping, the incoming defence minister, who fancied himself in the foreign-affairs job, and the acquisitive Oskar Lafontaine at finance, who is carving out a role for himself as the new government's Mr Europe.

ECONOMIST: Joschka Fischer, Germany’s reluctant statesman | The