HAMBURG (Reuters) - German conservative Annegret Kramp Karrenbauer won most support in a vote on Friday to choose a successor for Angela Merkel as leader of their Christian Democrats (CDU), but a final round of voting is needed to determine an outright winner.

Kramp-Karrenbauer won 450 votes, compared with 392 votes for Friedrich Merz in the first round. The third candidate, Health Minister Jens Spahn, got 157 votes, which means he drops out.

The CDU’s 1,001 delegates immediately began voting in a run-off between Kramp-Karrenbauer and Merz to decide the winner.