JAKARTA, March 11 Kyodo (EDS: ADD...

JAKARTA, March 11 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Thursday he has submitted a alphabetic character of resignation to President Megawati Sukarnoputri amid mounting signs he will challenge her in the upcoming presidential election.

''I have sent the epistle some time ago, saying that I ask for her permission to resign from the cabinet,'' Yudhoyono told a recently made knowns briefing.

State Secretary Bambang Kesowo confirmed that Megawati has received the verbal expression adding she will respond soon

Yudhoyono said he will stay in the security position until Megawati approves his resignation. His announcement coincides with the start of campaigning for the April 5 parliamentary elections.

In his literal sense he hinted that Megawati has taken throughout his role as the top political and security minister.

forward Wednesday, Kesowo quoted Megawati as saying that the president labeled the epistle inappropriate.

''Issues between the president and cabinet members can be addressed directly, there is no ne to depute a letter,'' Kesowo said.

The relationship between Megawati and Yudhoyono has been stretched recently and there had been hints disclosed according to Yudhoyono's staff that the minister has been sidelined in the cabinet.

In the past scarcely any days, Yudhoyono has canceled several meetings, including single in kind to discuss a bill in succession the country's borders.

Yudhoyono, 54 has lately appeared in his official capacity in television advertisements that called for peaceful elections this year.

Officials of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party exert one's self (PDI-P) have criticized the commercials as thinly veiled campaigning given his widely known presidential ambitions.

The retired four-star army general has been nominated by means of the Democratic Party as its candidate for the presidential election.

Political on-lookers said that Yudhoyono is undivided of the strongest threats to Megawati in the country's first to the end of time direct presidential election.

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