Another Argentine Senator resigns from government

Another Argentine senator, Jose Genoud, has left the government following last Friday's resignation of the country's vice president, Carlos Alvarez.

Mr Alvarez resigned in protest at what he felt was an inadequate response by the government to a bribes-for-votes scandal in which it was implicated.

Mr Genoud had become the first in the presidential line of succession after Mr Alvarez's departure.

He said he had stepped down to give President Fernando de la Rua room for manoeuvre in choosing a new deputy.

Correspondents say Mr Alvarez's decision to leave has weakened the position of the ten-month old coalition government of President de la Rua's centrist Radical Party and the left-leaning Frepaso.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service