Social Democrat Chancellor Schroeder on Thursday met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Berlin to watch over the signing of a $5 billion deal to build an underwater pipeline between Russian gas monopolist Gazprom and German energy companies E.on and BASF.

The meeting was set for October, but Schroeder pressed for an earlier date to score a few extra points in the last 10 days of his campaign ahead of early elections Sept. 18, observers say.

Christian Democrat lawmakers, such as foreign policy expert Wolfgang Schaeuble, have criticized the project because it ignores Poland and the Baltic states, countries that will lose transit fees because the pipeline will stretch under the Baltic Sea for a direct link between Germany and Russia.

The last debate in federal parliament on Wednesday between Schroeder and CDU rival Angela Merkel also circled, among other topics, around Germany's energy future.

"The catastrophe in the United States shows once again that we have to become less dependent on oil," Schroeder said. The current oil prices are "a serious threat to Germany's economy," he said, adding he would pursue a Group of Eight initiative for more transparency in the oil market.

Hurricane Katrina has not only devastated the U.S. Gulf coast, but also elevated international oil prices. The wave hit Europe and Germany soon after waters flooded Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- oil companies raised prices, elevating the price of a gallon of gasoline to nearly $7.

Schroeder called for politics that will minimize Germany's dependency on oil, and bashed oil companies for their "irresponsible price gouging."

Observers say Schroeder can bank on a few energy policy changes his government has pushed trough over the past seven years, albeit those changes were preceded by vicious interior struggles between the SPD and Greens.

The chancellor attacked his rival, Merkel, for her plans to extend the run-time of Germany's nuclear power plants. The SPD and Greens wanted to gradually phase out nuclear energy.

Several lawmakers and Schroeder have in recent days questioned the 40-year-old linkage of German oil and gas prices. Consumer Affairs Minister Renate Kuenast of the Green Party told the German daily Bild the "coupling of gas and oil prices must finally be abolished... Russian gas has nothing to do with Arabian oil."

But Finance Minister Hans Eichel (SPD) said a decoupling wouldn't change much, because energy prices have risen. Evidence of his remarks -- European energy giants, such as the Electricite de France and German rivals Eon and RWE, are looking to investment all over the continent.

Economic analysts have warned that high energy costs will hurt Germany's economy as consumers would spent on energy what they would normally spend on other goods.

The chancellor last week decided to sell parts of Germany's federal oil reserves on the international market, a measure he said should encourage oil corporations to lower prices. Sale of the oil, which 27 countries agreed to free up in a bid to take weight off the market, started in Rotterdam Wednesday.

Germans have reacted to the crisis by buying $10 worth of gas (around 1.3 gallons) -- they're hoping for more wallet-friendly prices in the near future, something experts say are unlikely.

"The oil prices will stay that way or even go up a bit," Hans Hertle, energy expert at the Institute for Energy and Ecological Research, at Heidelberg University, told United Press International in a telephone interview Thursday.

Schroeder and Merkel are looking for alternative sources of energy. SPD and Greens have advocated solar and wind energy, and want to further push investment in the renewable energy sector.

"In the renewable energy sector SPD and Greens were on the right track," Hertle said. "But more needs to be done when it comes to energy efficiency."

Merkel said her energy policy will take into account market fluctuations and focus on efficiency rather than pure ecological benefits.

Manfred Fischedick heads the Future Energy and Mobility Structures research group at the Wuppertal Institute, which researches sustainability. He said becoming less dependent on oil and pursuing a mix of different energy sources is Germany's most reasonableenergy future.

"We need to increase our international networks when it comes to energy security," he said. "Thinkable for the future could be solar power plants in Portugal or North Africa that deliver electricity to Germany."

He said energy-saving measures can be advocated by the government without consumers having to alter their way of life.

"Energy-efficient building materials, for houses and automobile parts, can save us up to 30 percent energy."

When it comes to the transportation sector, both Hertle and Fischedick hope for more hybrid cars and an increase in median gas mileage.

Fischedick said he is not worried that a coalition of CDU and FDP might hurt climate protection.

"I don't think there will be a drastic change in energy policy, because that would simply be counterproductive for our country," he said.

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