Potsdam - The Social Democrats (SPD) in the German state of Brandenburg, surrounding Berlin, chose to enter government talks with the radical Left Party on Monday, ending ten years of centre-right coalition with the Christian Democrats (CDU).

Brandenburg's Premier Matthias Platzeck of the SPD announced the decision on Monday, overturning plans to enter into preliminary discussions with Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU.

Platzeck said the decision to take up coalition negotiations with the Left Party had been unanimous. The SPD emerged as Brandenburg's strongest party in last month's state election.

Nationally, the SPD has been floundering after suffering record lows in a general election held the same day.

The Left Party is traditionally strong in the former East German states such as Brandenburg, where the successor to the former communist state party is popular for its redistributive policies favouring the underprivileged.

Across much of Germany the Left Party is viewed with suspicion, for its associations with the totalitarian East German state.

The Brandenburg decision came a day after the Left Party was denied a governing role in the westerly state of Saarland. There, the minority Greens used their kingmaker position to back a previously untried coalition with the CDU and the Free Democrats.

The SPD's decision came after Kerstin Kaiser, a prominent Brandenburg Left Party member who had been an informant for the East German Stasi secret service, turned town a ministerial post.

Some SPD members had seen Kaiser's history as an obstacle to a so-called red-red coalition with the Left Party.

Brandenburg's SPD won 31 seats, while the Left Party achieved 26 and the CDU won 19 seats in last month's state election, which coincided with the general election on September 27.

Coalition talks are expected to start Thursday. (dpa)