Berlin  - After four years of coalition disputes in Germany, voters have a fairly good picture of what Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic supporters would like to change: taxes.

Her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU), argue that easing taxes and levies on income would encourage economic growth.

The Christian parties have resisted leftist calls for new taxes.

They have promised that if elected, they will halt creeping tax increases that cause most pain among middle-income Germans. However economists warn that Germany's public finances are so overstrained right now that substantial tax give-aways are not feasible.

The CDU's mantra, often repeated by Merkel, is the "social market economy," - the German system of taming the US and British model of capitalism through government regulation, worker rights and social- welfare insurance funded from payrolls.

The parties hope that the social market economy will become a "worldwide role model," the election manifesto says.

Other key Merkel policies are essentially conservative, such as retaining existing nuclear power stations, maintaining military conscription and keeping German troops deployed in Afghanistan.

"We want to avert the danger that instability and terror will spread from Afghanistan to other parts of the world," says the manifesto.

Despite the word "Christian" in the parties' names, there are few overtly religious planks in their election platform, other than a call for religious instruction, which is compulsory at public schools in some states, to be a syllabus subject in all states.

Merkel has mainly focussed on gaining the loyalty of swing voters, leading some in her party to complain that the CDU and CSU barely differ on policy from the other major German party, the Social Democrats.

The two sides have however wrangled over core policies, such as introducing a minimum wage. The CDU and CSU oppose this.

The manifesto is blunt in demanding that foreigners living in Germany make greater efforts to integrate.

Immigrants who remain loyal to their old homelands have repeatedly sought halfway-house arrangements, such as the vote at town if not at German national level. But the manifesto says the CDU and CSU reject dual nationality and municipal voting rights for aliens.

On law and order, the parties seek stricter punishment for juvenile delinquents.

They want to eradicate legal doubts about whether the armed forces would be allowed to help the police to ward off any terrorist attack that begins on German soil. (dpa)