Row brews as Angela Merkel backs Juncker as EU chief

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker to become the next EU Commission president, the BBC reported.

But some European leaders have voiced opposition to the move.

Correspondents say the UK government sees Mr Juncker as too much of an EU federalist. It pointed to the need for "a lengthy process to find consensus."

Mr Juncker belongs to the European People's Party, which won the most seats in the European polls last week.

The centre-right party, which also includes Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrat party, won 213 out of 751 seats in the European Parliament and chose Mr Juncker as its candidate for the presidency succeeding Portugal's Jose Manuel Barroso.

Mr Juncker's main rival is the Socialist candidate Martin Schulz.

EU leaders traditionally choose the Commission head on their own, but under new rules have to "take into account" the results of the European parliamentary elections.

Chancellor Merkel said on Friday that the EPP "with its top candidate Jean-Claude Juncker has become the strongest political power which is why I am now conducting all talks exactly in this spirit, that Jean-Claude Juncker should become president of the European Commission."