German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD) lost control of the key state of North Rhine-Westphalia in parliamentary elections Sunday, ending 39 years in power in the most populous state, exit polls showed.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led SPD by more than 6 percentage points, German media reported.

SPD gained only 37.7 percent of the votes while CDU climbed to some 44 percent, latest exit polls showed.

The Greens Party, SPD's partner in the coalition government, and the Free Democratic Party, partner of CDU, got some 5.8 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.

The vote is seen as a test for the 2006 national elections. In 1999, the SPD governed in 11 of Germany's 16 states but if it loses in North Rhine-Westphalia, it will have only five.

North Rhine-Westphalia has a population of 18 million, about one fifth of all German voters.

More than one third of Germany's 100 largest companies by sales have their headquarters in the state, which is the center of Germany's coal and steel industries.

Source: Xinhua