BERLIN, May 25 (Xinhuanet) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to cut short his planned trip to the United States next month due to the national elections, a government spokesman announced on Wednesday.

    The spokesman said that Schroeder will cancel a planned trip to the US state of California and his meeting with US President George W. Bush in Washington will still be held as scheduled on June 27.

    Ties between Washington and Berlin were strained over Germany'sopposition to the US-led Iraq war. Leaders of the two allies were not in a good relationship either.

    "It's no secret that German Chancellor Schroeder and US President Bush don't get along. Schroeder, after all, has been a constant 'nein' to Bush's 'yup,'" an article in the Spiegel Onlinesaid on Tuesday.

    On Sunday, Schroeder called for early elections after his party suffered a defeat in a legislative election in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Social Democratic Party(SPD) has ruled for 39 years.

    Opinion polls have shown that the SPD will lose in the federal elections which could be held in mid-September. Enditem