German aid for solar power should fall 30 pct-CDU

BERLIN, May 29 (Reuters) - State support for solar energy should be cut by 30 percent in 2009, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said on Thursday.

Michael Fuchs, the head of the conservatives' parliamentary panel on small and medium-sized businesses, said the proposal had been agreed with environmental policymakers within his Christian Democratic (CDU) party.

The proposal now needed to be discussed with the centre-left Social Democrats, who rule in coalition with the conservatives, he added.

(Reporting by Thorsten Severin)