BERLIN: The executive board of Angela Merkel's party on Monday firmly backed Armin Laschet to be the conservative bloc's chancellor candidate at upcoming elections, in a bid to draw a line under a bitter battle with challenger Markus Soeder.

After more than six hours of talks, several dozen CDU board members voted 77.5 percent in favour of Laschet, participants told AFP, with Bavarian premier Soeder from the smaller CSU sister party taking 22.5 percent. Soeder had earlier said he would accept the CDU's decision.