Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid early this morning issued a decree "freezing" parliament and ordering snap elections within a year.
However, his moves to disempower the body that is currently impeaching him looked set to fail and it was expected he would be removed from office later today.
Mr Wahid had called on the military and the police to halt an impeachment hearing against him scheduled for later today.
But Jakarta's police chief was reported to have ordered his men to disobey Mr Wahid's orders, and the speaker of the lower house called on parliament to ignore the decree, immediately impeach the president and replace him with his vice president, Ms Megawati Sukanroputri, who attend the impeachment hearings.
"We call on the MPR to take steps . . . by impeaching the president because he had taken actions which violate the constitution and appoint Vice President Megawati president," Mr Akbar Tanjung said.
His call was immediately backed by the upper house. The house chairman, Mr Amien Rais, said: "God willing, if everything goes on smoothly, I think that there is a large possibility that we will have a new president tomorrow [Monday] afternoon."
Mr Wahid's announcement was earlier understood by most as a state of civil emergency, as he also announced the "freezing" of the upper and lower houses of parliament. But he did not use the word "emergency". A civil emergency empowers the president to dissolve parliament.
Mr Wahid said the armed forces and the national police "have the obligation to stave off the special session that is to be held tomorrow morning [Monday] because there should not be any rival governments."
As he spoke, more than 2,000 troops were massed in a central square, but they had earlier claimed their presence was "non-political" and that they were there in response to two bomb blasts in the city early yesterday.
The Detikom online news service quoted Jakarta police chief Inspector Gen Sofyan Jacoeb as saying by radio to his troops: "Safeguard the special [impeachment] session."
Armed forces spokesman Air Vice Marshall Graito Usodo said the national military commander Admiral Widodo Adisucipto would hold a press conference at 7.30 a.m. (1.30 a.m. GMT) today to clarify the situation. Mr Wahid however claimed a major part of the population and the military and police "welcome the decree".
"With certainty and the responsibility to safeguard the nation, and in the name of a majority of the republic of Indonesia, I am forced to take extraordinary steps," he said. He spelled out the steps as -- "Freeze the MPR and the DPR (the upper and lower houses of parliament)" and "return the sovereignty to the people, take actions and form a body needed to hold elections within a year".
Observers said Mr Wahid used the term "freeze" rather than "dissolve" parliament, because only an emergency would enable him to disband the legislature.
He also said he had "frozen" the opposition Golkar party while awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court which is currently hearing a suit demanding its disbanding.
He said the move was meant to "safeguard the reform movement from obstacles posed by the [former dictator Mr Suharto's] New Order."
But the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Mr Akbar Tanjung, swiftly rejected Wahid's decree "freezing" the legislature and the party he chairs.
Mr Wahid said he had been "flooded" by demands from non-governmental organisations, political parties, non-political organisations, religious leaders and others "representing the people" that he issue the decree.
In the decree, he also ordered the armed forces and the national police "to safeguard the unity of the nation". Mr Wahid's top security minister, Mr Agum Gumelar, and cabinet Secretary, Mr Marzuki Darusman, threatened to resign a few hours after the president ordered the "freeze" on parliament.