It is hypothesised that the rise of blood pressure (BP) during the last hours of the sleeping period is a cause of the high incidence of cardiovascular events in the morning. The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate that telmisartan (MICARDIS®) is not inferior to ramipril in lowering blood pressure in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension. Blood pressure will be assessed by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) as this will allow comparison of the full 24-hour effects of both treatments without artefacts (e.g., white-coat hypertension) introduced by measurement of blood pressure in the clinic. This will measure diastolic blood pressures over the entire 24-hour dosing interval, with primary attention focused on the last six hours of the dosing interval.