Dublin (Ireland):
Four candidates have launched a battle to lead Ireland's governing party after troubled Prime Minister Brian Cowen's quit the post after a series of crises forced him to announce snap polls.
Micheal Martin, the foreign minister whose departure crippled Cowen's authority, is the odds-on favourite to win the contest and take the Fianna Fall party into a general election which polls predict they will lose heavily.
He is up against Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, Defence Minister Eamon O Cuiv and Trade Minister Mary Hanafin, who also wasted no time in declaring their candidature before the 1:00pm (1300 GMT) Monday deadline.
Cowen stepped down on Saturday after a week of political turmoil.
Despite surviving a confidence vote among his party's lawmakers on Tuesday, his authority had evaporated and was further damaged by a botched Cabinet reshuffle that followed.
The premier said he had quit so that Fianna Fail could be "free from internal distractions" to fight the election slated for March 11.
He said he was nonetheless staying on as prime minister to focus on getting key budget laws passed to cement an EU-IMF bailout to revive Ireland's battered economy.
However, Cowen's government faces a confidence motion in parliament on Tuesday and the independent lawmakers on whom his coalition relies for a thin majority are threatening to turn against him too.
That would trigger the dissolution of parliament and an election even earlier than the March 11 date he announced last week.
Micheal Martin, the foreign minister whose departure crippled Cowen's authority, is the odds-on favourite to win the contest and take the Fianna Fall party into a general election which polls predict they will lose heavily.
He is up against Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, Defence Minister Eamon O Cuiv and Trade Minister Mary Hanafin, who also wasted no time in declaring their candidature before the 1:00pm (1300 GMT) Monday deadline.
Cowen stepped down on Saturday after a week of political turmoil.
Despite surviving a confidence vote among his party's lawmakers on Tuesday, his authority had evaporated and was further damaged by a botched Cabinet reshuffle that followed.
The premier said he had quit so that Fianna Fail could be "free from internal distractions" to fight the election slated for March 11.
He said he was nonetheless staying on as prime minister to focus on getting key budget laws passed to cement an EU-IMF bailout to revive Ireland's battered economy.
However, Cowen's government faces a confidence motion in parliament on Tuesday and the independent lawmakers on whom his coalition relies for a thin majority are threatening to turn against him too.
That would trigger the dissolution of parliament and an election even earlier than the March 11 date he announced last week.
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