It's high time we changed the course of agriculture...We want food safety through appropriate farming methods that are good for the environment.

Gerhard Schroeder

Their predecessors, Social Democrat Karl-Heinz Funke and the Greens' Andrea Fischer, quit on Tuesday amid accusations of complacency - leaving Mr Schroeder with a political as well as a consumer confidence problem.

His solution - reappointing one Green and one Social Democrat, but switching their departments - will be seen as an attempt to maintain the delicate balance of his red-green coalition.

But he must also steer a path through the public anger which has erupted since the discovery that Germany was not, after all, BSE free.

Emotional: Fischer announces her resignation

Ten cases have been discovered since testing started last autumn.

Mr Schroeder said his announcement of a new consumer protection role for the agriculture ministry was an important step forward in the crisis.

"The BSE crisis has made it compellingly clear that we have to make several organisational, and not just personnel, changes," Mr Schroeder told a news conference.

As well as taking responsibility for consumer protection, Ms Kuenast will also be expected to try to steer farming away from intensive methods and towards more traditional practices.

Renate Kuenast

Age: 45 Co-leader of Green Party since June Former prison social worker Trained as lawyer Protege of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer

Correspondents say consumers, whose confidence has been shattered by the BSE revelations, may well back her, but big farmers are likely to be worried by her appointment.

Though neither of the two departing ministers admitted being sacked, a prompt and terse statement from Mr Schroeder left little doubt that the chancellor had taken the initiative.

'Business as usual'

Andrea Fischer stood down in a tearful news conference on Tuesday, saying she hoped the move would reassure consumers.

Ulla Schmidt

Age: 51 Eight years in parliament Trained to teach children with learning difficulties Oversaw Germany's pension reform

"I hope that by resigning I can contribute to an end of the revelations and help promote a return to business as usual," she said.

Ms Fischer also reflected on the irony of a Green Party minister resigning due to the mistakes of the intensive industrialisation of farming.

The problem, she said, lay with the pressure for lower and lower food prices.

There has been speculation that the two resignations could spark a wider German cabinet reshuffle, but Mr Schroeder denied he had any plans to move anyone else.

Some parts of the German media have been calling the situation a "government crisis" - and point out that Mr Schroeder has lost a succession of ministers for different reasons.

Other ministers are still under pressure - including Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who has admitted involvement as a young radical left-winger in violent street protest.