BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina's new power-brokers on Friday put forward one of their own to lead the crumbling nation to possible presidential elections in March after a bloody revolt toppled the government.
With sporadic looting reported overnight in Buenos Aires after riots in which 27 people were killed, Congress rubber stamped Fernando de la Rua's resignation and is expected to confirm on Saturday the appointment of the Peronist Party's choice for interim president, Gov. Adolfo Rodriguez Saa -- and the proposed March 3 election date.
The hitherto opposition Peronist Party, which dominates Congress and precipitated De la Rua's fall by refusing to form a unity government, inherits an economy in a four-year recession and facing the threat of currency collapse and the biggest default in history on its 132 billion debt.
Rodriguez Saa, the well-liked governor of the arid Andean province of San Luis, is seen as a charismatic, fiscally responsible consensus builder opposed to devaluing the peso.
He is due to unveil unspecified economic measures on Saturday -- when he is expected to take over from Senate chief Ramon Puerta, who is filling in as president under the constitution but refused to keep the job.
President Bush encouraged Argentina's next leader to stick to the International Monetary Fund's austerity recipes -- which sparked the revolt against De la Rua. He said the IMF might find more money if such measures materialize.
Earlier on Friday, Puerta appointed Peronist Sen. Oscar Lamberto, a former head of the lower house budget committee, as provisional economy minister.
The leaders of the country of 36 million people face the mammoth task of making the streets safe from gangs of looters and restoring order to an economy brought to a standstill.
De la Rua, in his last use of executive powers on Friday, lifted a state of siege decreed in the heat of rioting. Puerta said it could be reinstated in provinces that requested it.
Many shops were still shut or had armed guards. Eighteen looters were shot by shopkeepers defending their goods this week, seven died in Thursday's rioting in the historic Plaza de Mayo and a Korean couple committed suicide after their shop was ransacked. Two banks and a U.S. fast food outlet were burned.