German President Christian Wulff resigns over scandals German President Christian Wulff leaves after making a statement of resignation in ...

German President Christian Wulff resigns over scandals

German President Christian Wulff leaves after making a statement of resignation in the presidential residence in Berlin, Feb. 17, 2012. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)

German President Christian Wulff makes a statement of resignation in the presidential residence in Berlin, capital of Germany on Feb. 17, 2012. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)

German President Christian Wulff arrives to make a statement of resignation in the presidential residence in Berlin, capital of Germany on Feb. 17, 2012. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)

BERLIN, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Embattled German President Christian Wulff on Friday resigned over scandals sparked by a private loan on favorable terms.

Wulff, 52, announced his decision to step down in a televised speech Friday morning, one day after prosecutors asked the German parliament to lift the president's immunity which may lead to a formal investigation of possible corruption charges.

A close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the president had faced mounting domestic pressure after it emerged that Wulff had tried to stop revelations by Germany's most-read newspaper Bild in December 2011 over a personal loan of 500,000 euros (about 650,000 U.S. dollars) he received from the wife of a business friend at very low rates to pay for a new home in 2008. Wulff was serving as state premier of the northern German state of Lower Saxony at the time.

The development is causing Merkel, who postponed a planned trip to Rome, new headaches as she struggles to take a lead in fighting the two-year-old eurozone debt crisis.

Merkel, who has so far defended the president, is to make a statement 30 minutes after Wulff's address.

Her coalition government, which has only thin majority and is currently concentrated in fighting euro crisis, has to seek a consensus candidate with the opposition. A successor has to be elected by parliament within 30 days.