Argentine cabinet members resign in economy protest

Three key Cabinet ministers have resigned in protest at a new austerity plan aimed at lifting Argentina out of a nearly three-year recession.

Angry over proposed cuts in education spending, Interior Minister Federico Storani stepped down just minutes before the austerity plan was to be announced.

Hours later, two more Cabinet ministers - Social Development Minister Marcos Makon and Education Minister Hugo Juri - followed suit.

The resignations were a devastating blow to President Fernando de la Rua's Alliance Government and appeared to signal a possible end to the fragile two-party coalition.

Storani was a member of De La Rua's centrist Radical Civic Union. Makon and Juri were members of the left-leaning Frepaso party, the coalition's junior partner. Their resignations left the Cabinet without any Frepaso representatives.

Anibal Ibarra, the mayor of Buenos Aires and a leader of Frepaso, said: "We cannot stay in the Government a second longer. There are a great number of measures we don't agree on (that) will cause a great deal of conflict."

However, Ibarra said the Alliance would still remain united in the Lower House of Congress to maintain the Government's majority there.

Argentina is mired in a 33-month recession. The country's economic woes have at times threatened to unravel global emerging markets and have severely tested the durability of De la Rua's ruling coalition.

Argentina borrows more money than any country in Latin America. The country's foreign debt is £80bn, close to half of its economic output.