Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis officially resigned on Thursday as president of the ruling PASOK at the joint meeting of the party's Central Committee and Parliamentary Group and initiated procedures to elect a new leader for the party. 

Simitis called on the participants to agree to an emergency PASOK conference on Feb. 6 and proposed that the new leader be elected by the entire PASOK membership in a vote to be held on Feb. 8, two days after the conference.

He also proposed that the conference make decisions regarding PASOK's pre-election program.

He reiterated that if PASOK won the elections, the new party president would lead the government and that his decision to step down was aimed at enabling a PASOK victory in the coming elections.

PASOK was left behind by opposition in recent opinion polls. 

He also defended the timing of his move as a response to Greek society's urgent call for revival. 

"PASOK must act and not put itself in the position of being a spectator of events. Waiting rooms befit conservatism and the right, not us," he stressed.

The prime minister sought to reduce concerns about the brief period of "dual leadership" for PASOK, stressing that it will end on March 8 after the elections and that such an arrangement had already been tested before in other European countries.

According to Simitis, he will play an active role in PASOK's pre-election campaign and will help the new PASOK chief with his experience from the past eight years as the head of Greek government. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister George Papandreou announced his decision to run for president of PASOK in a statement to the press after the meeting.

Papandreou, the son of late three-term Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and the grandson of George Papandreou, a well-known postwar politician and prime minister in the 1960s, is likely to be the only candidate for the leadership of PASOK. 

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2004)