Romania's coalition government, barely a year old and with its market reforms under fire, was pitched into turmoil after one of its parties issued what amounted to an ultimatum for the Prime Minister to quit.
The Social Democrats, the coalition's second largest party, blamed the Prime Minister, Mr Victor Ciorbea, for errors they said had dashed the hopes of 22 million Romanians to improve some of eastern Europe's lowest living standards.
The Social Democrat leader, former prime minister, Mr Petre Roman, promised to remain within the coalition - provided a new government was formed by the end of March.
"The sole condition is to create a new government that will be more capable and decisive and operate with a new programme," he said after his party voted overwhelmingly to withdraw support for Mr Ciorbea.
The government's three other parties, led by Mr Ciorbea's Christian Democrats, backed the Prime Minister and dismissed Mr Roman's manoeuvre as hypocritical.
The standoff is unlikely to cheer Western investors nervous about Romania's reform prospects or the International Monetary Fund, due this month to review the government's progress and decide on further credits.
"This is an explosive development. Romania's budget is in the red, the central bank is being forced to dig into reserves to keep the [leu] currency afloat," the commentator, Mr Cristian Tudor Popescu, said. "All these economic performance indicators will go from bad to worse now. Romania's economic situation is on thin ice and responsibility for that is shared."
The Christian Democrats and allied parties scheduled emergency talks yesterday to consider their options.
The Prime Minister stayed out of the public eye after Mr Roman dropped his political bombshell. The Centrist president, Mr Emil Constantinescu, who has the ultimate power to step in as a mediator, has also made no comment so far.
Mr Ciorbea can be forced from office only if there is a consensus among the coalition parties to ask the president to replace him - subject to parliamentary approval.
He could also be toppled by a no-confidence motion in parliament, due to reconvene next month.
The only public figure to rejoice in the confrontation was Mr Corneliu Vadim Tudor, leader of the extreme nationalist Greater Romania party, whose ratings have more than doubled recently.
The International Monetary Fund said yesterday it had decided to postpone a mission to Romania next week to review the government's reform programme until the country's political turmoil was resolved.
The Fund mission had been due to make a formal review of the government's 1998 programme, focusing on the budget. A World Bank mission is currently in Bucharest examining its projects undertaken as part of the government's reform programme.
Mr Petre Roman: leader of the Democratic party