Berlin - German Social Democrat (SPD) party leader Frank- Walter Steinmeier attempted Monday to boost his struggling election campaign by trying to seize the initiative in economic management.

Steinmeier, the SPD candidate for chancellor in general elections set for September, unveiled an economic plan aimed at creating full employment in Europe's biggest economy over the next decade and transforming it into a model of environmentally friendly industry.

Setting out details of his economic proposals in a speech to the Karl Schiller Institute in Berlin, Steinmeier called for "a change in perspective" in Germany.

He wants to end unemployment by 2020 by creating 4 million jobs with a plan that includes forging an alliance for small- and mid- sized businesses, including steps to help the sector to secure financing.

"Full employment is possible - I'm going to work very hard to achieve it," he told his audience in a speech outlining details of his 67-page Deutschland Plan (Plan for Germany).

But with Steinmeier badly trailing Chancellor Angela Merkel in opinion polls, his conservative political opponents were quick to pour scorn on the proposal, comparing it to the 10-year plans of Communist East Germany.

Steinmeier's jobs push was a "desperate move to prop up a moribund SPD," said Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.

Opinion polls currently give Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat-led bloc about a 15-point lead over Steinmeier's SPD.

About 60 per cent of voters told an Infratest poll compiled for state broadcaster ARD last week they would prefer Merkel as chancellor compared to just 25 per cent for Steinmeier. The 53-year- old Steinmeier is currently foreign minister in Merkel's grand coalition government.

However, Steinmeier defended his plan against criticism, telling his audience Monday that developing ecologically based industrial policy was "the greatest challenge
(facing Germany) since unification" nearly two decades ago.

He went on to say that no other country "had better credentials (than Germany) to equip the world for energy savings products and machinery."

Under a Steinmeiner-led government, renewable energy sources would represent 30 per cent of Germany's energy needs by 2020.

But Merkel has successfully demonstrated her skills as a crisis manager by helping to spearhead Europe's push to increase global market supervision and overseeing the launch of a stimulus package of more than 80 billion euros (114.4 billion dollars) aimed at spurring economic growth.

A few days before the September 27 election, Merkel is scheduled to join the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) leading economic powers at a summit in Pittsburgh called as part of a push to revamp the global financial order as it faces us to its biggest crisis in more than 60 years.

However, Steinmeier is determined place job creation at the centre of the election campaign, which is now starting to slowly crank up.

Economists have warned that unemployment is likely to creep up as the election approaches as the global recession catches up with the German labour market and companies start to shed jobs.

The SPD is following up the campaigns of other major parties, which have already sought to promote themselves as leading the charge for job creation.

Only the SPD has gone one step further and promised full employment over the next decade should Steinmeier emerge victorious at the polls.

Steinmeier's job plan is expected to include measures for creating 2 million industrial jobs, 1 million jobs in the health sector and 500,000 in the creative and services sectors.

German unemployment edged up less than expected to 8.2 per cent in July, data released last week showed, adding to signs the labour market is managing to hold up in the face of the global downturn.

Until now, German employers' widespread use of government subsidized short-term work contracts have helped companies avoid mass layoffs despite the weakening economic environment.

But the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has forecast that German unemployment will hit 11.6 per cent in 2010.

Despite forward-looking indicators rising recently on hopes of an economic turnaround by the end of the year, analysts expect the economy to contract by a dramatic 6 per cent plus this year after a sharp slump in world trade hit the country's key export machine.(dpa)