BERLIN German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and union leaders welcomed on Friday the findings of a job commission that says its recommendations could halve unemployment within three years.

Speaking at a press conference, Schroeder and DGB Union Federation Chief Michael Sommer said the recommendations made by the Hartz Commission, named after Chairman Peter Hartz, were steps in the right direction.

But Schroeder said there was no point in "fighting over details already", as the report was not due to be released in its entirety until August 16.

The proposals, dubbed a "carrot and stick" approach in the German media, include reforms of job placement schemes and measures to incite job seeking, such as putting time limits on unemployment benefits.

Germany has around four million unemployed and the problem has become a major campaign issue for Schroeder and his Social Democrats (SPD) ahead of general elections on September 22.

Schroeder created the commission in late February to make recommendations for improving the Labor Office following a scandal over repeated false reporting of unemployment statistics.

The frontrunner to become next chancellor, Edmund Stoiber, frequently taunts Schroeder for breaking a promise to drive down joblessness from more than four million when he was elected in 1998 to below 3.5 million by this year.

"What is important is that the propositions overall go in the right direction," Schroeder said Friday.

He had recently said he would like certain measures to be implemented before September's vote, but some of them are controversial and could anger parts of the electorate, Reuters reported.