VIENNA, May 18 (Reuters) - Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the far-right Freedom Party said on Saturday he was stepping down and would be replaced by Transport Minister Norbert Hofer after an embarrassing video of him was published by German media.

Strache was shown in the video published on Friday meeting a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece in 2017 and apparently offering to funnel state contracts towards a company in exchange for political and financial support. He announced his resignation at a news conference. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Alison Williams)

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