BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's new cabinet offered to quit Saturday after new protests at the government's inability to end a long recession sparked clashes with police outside the presidential palace and looting of Congress.
Barely a week after deadly riots forced out a previous president, a dozen police were injured after using tear gas to break up what had been a peaceful protest by thousands against hated banking curbs and politicians widely seen as corrupt.
Thirty-three people were arrested as broad frustration over interim President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa's week-old government boiled over. Some protesters pounded on the doors of the presidential palace, while others broke into Congress, where they dragged out furniture and set small fires that were quickly put out as the frenzy waned shortly after dawn Saturday.
Just days after being sworn in, all the ministers in Rodriguez Saa's caretaker government offered to quit following the violent protests, a government spokesman said. It was not known if their resignations had been accepted.
Hoping to cool popular anger, Rodriguez Saa said Saturday evening that he had asked the banks to open for longer hours on Monday to allow some savers access to cash.
Banking curbs introduced at the beginning of the month to stop an incipient bank run, limit cash withdrawals to 1,000 per month.
Rodriguez Saa also said finance department officials would meet with the Central Bank to ensure that all cash machines will function on Monday and said he would meet with provincial governors on Sunday to discuss the government's crisis plan.
He did not mention having received the offer from his Cabinet to resign.
The protests marked an abrupt end to a fleeting honeymoon for Rodriguez Saa, who stopped payments on Argentina's foreign debt after being appointed president last Sunday by Congress, which is dominated by his Peronist Party.
Carlos Grosso, chief adviser to the cabinet but widely suspected of corruption during a stint last decade as mayor of Buenos Aires, resigned as the massive crowds outside the pink presidential palace shouted his name in disgust.