Wahid retreats from showdown

Many Indonesians have vowed to defend parliament

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has said he will not declare a state of emergency as threatened on Friday.

But he stood by plans to adopt emergency powers on 31 July if the Indonesian national assembly (MPR) did not stop impeachment proceedings against him due to start the next day.

The most important thing is today there is no emergency. There will be a kind of warning

Agum Gumelar
security minister

Despite the president's apparent retreat, a showdown is still possible with his opponents warning they would start impeachment proceedings early if he pushed ahead with plans to swear in a new police chief on Friday.

Mr Wahid is being impeached over allegations of incompetence. He says the charges are politically motivated.

Police in Jakarta are stepping up security

The president told worshippers at a mosque on Friday: "I will announce later at 1800 (1100 GMT) that if a compromise cannot be reached on 31 July, I will declare the country in a state of danger and I will declare a state of emergency."

Emergency powers would allow Mr Wahid to disband parliament before it could impeach him, and then call early elections.

Earlier, Mr Wahid's top security minister, Agum Gumelar, said: "There will be no decree issued today, only a warning to reach a compromise."

Collision course

Hundreds of riot police have been guarding the parliament in the capital where the MPR is due to convene for a special session on 1 August.

Megawati: Waiting to take over the presidency?

But the speaker of the national assembly, Amien Rais, on Friday threatened to start the hearings almost immediately if the president tried to swear in a new police chief.

"If President Abdurrahman Wahid swears in a new police chief later [at 1600 (0900 GMT)], we will later tonight hold a plenary session for the convening of the special session tomorrow," he said.

A presidential spokesman had earlier announced that Mr Wahid would swear in Commissioner General Chaeruddin Ismail as police chief to replace General Suroyo Bimantoro, who has refused to step down since being sacked by the president last month.

Police and military chiefs have said they would not support emergency rule.

Security operation

The BBC correspondent in Jakarta says Mr Wahid is perhaps trying to avoid having his bluff called by delaying the state of emergency until the day before the MPR convenes.

[Wahid] is counting the days

Amien Rais, speaker of the national assembly

More than 40,000 police and troops are on standby in the capital to ensure that the special session, whenever it is held, will not be disturbed.

Some 6,000 armed police will be deployed in the parliament complex, backed by armoured vehicles, helicopters and dogs.

The Jakarta police chief has warned that protesters attempting to break into the compound will be shot on sight.

'No chance'

But in recent days there has been much speculation in Indonesia that a compromise could still be reached. One suggestion is that the president would surrender most of his executive powers to his likely successor, Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and stay on as a ceremonial head of state.

Mr Wahid has repeatedly offered to give Megawati more power in exchange for ordering her party to drop its campaign to impeach him. Megawati has so far turned him down, and on Thursday executives of her Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle (PDIP) said she continued to reject the proposal.

But Mr Rais said it was too late for a deal.

"I don't think that any compromise still has a chance," he told Reuters television. "He is counting the days."

Moves towards impeachment started over Mr Wahid's alleged involvement in two corruption scandals but police and prosecutors have found no evidence of criminality.