Argentina found itself without a leader early Monday following the surprise resignation of interim President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, and the announcement that the next in line of succession refused the job.

By law, Chamber of Deputies leader Eduardo Camano from the Peronist party is in charge of the executive until Congress appoints a new president. Camano said he would call a joint session of the legislature Wednesday or Thursday to name a president.

Rodriguez Saa made his decision public in a dramatic televised address late Sunday to the nation, after spending just one week in office.

He said his resignation was effective immediately.

"I did not have any other choice," Rodriguez Saa said, saying the leaders of his Peronist party had turned their backs on him.

Nine of the party's 14 power-

brokering governors snubbed the now former president by refusing to attend an emergency meeting with him Sunday to discuss ways to

reshape his cabinet and economic policy, following a massive antigovernment protest Friday.

Rodriguez Saa said he had

telephoned Senate leader Ramon Puerta prior to his address to inform him of the decision.

However about one hour later, a spokesman for Puerta announced the senator had resigned his post. Puerta served as president for 48 hours after the resignation of Fernando de la Rua, and before the swearing in of Rodriguez Saa.

Rodriguez Saa, a former provincial governor, was appointed president December 23 de la Rua resigned two years into his four-year presidential term. Congress gave him a three-month mandate until presidential elections could be held in March.

Rodriguez Saa now returns to private life, having resigned his governorship to assume Argentina's presidency.

According to news reports, at issue in the internal dispute between the fractured Peronist party was whether Saa would have stepped aside after March 3 elections, or would serve out the remainder of de la Rua's term through December 2003.