BUENOS AIRES: The main parties in crisis-stricken Argentina reportedly reached agreement on Monday that Peronist Senator Eduardo Duhalde will replace interim President Adolfo Rodrmguez Saa, who resigned Sunday, to govern until 2003.

Leaders of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) party of Fernando de la Rza, who was forced by rioting and protests to step down as president on Dec 20, as well as the leftist FREPASO, the junior partner in his governing coalition, have said they will back the designation of Duhalde to pull the country out of its present turmoil.

Shortly after Rodrmguez Saa resigned on Sunday, the president of the Senate, Ramsn Puerta, followed suit. Puerta was next in line for the presidency, a post he held briefly after de la Rza stepped down.

That means Rodrmguez Saa technically remains president until Tuesday’s legislative assembly formally accepts his resignation and chooses a successor.

The second in line for the presidency is the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Camaqo, and the third would be Julio Nazareno, the president of the Supreme Court.

Announcing his resignation in a message to the nation on Sunday, Rodrmguez Saa complained of the “selfish, petty attitude” and greed for power that left him without support within his Peronist Party.

Rodrmguez Saa, who governed the central province of San Luis for 18 years until becoming president for seven days, had been proposed by Peronist governors to run the country until elections were held on March 3.

But the power struggles among the Peronists, added to the country’s dire social and economic crisis, swiftly eroded his support base.

Rodrmguez Saa’s resignation was triggered by the spontaneous protests that began Friday night. Thousands of people in Buenos Aires banged on pots and pans outside the Casa Rosada and Congress demanding the resignation of corrupt members of the cabinet as well as the entire Supreme Court.

One group of demonstrators even broke down the doors of Congress, smashing windows, setting fire to furniture and tossing sofas and statues of former presidents down the main outside staircase.

In his speech on Sunday night, Rodrmguez Saa detailed the steps he had taken in one week as president, and said he was called on to do in three months what had not been done in 30 years. He also placed the blame on “the wolves roaming around, the lobbies, who did not understand the essence of today’s new times, and wanted to maintain the privileges of the old Argentina.” —Dawn/InterPress Service.