Raju Gopalakrishnan, Jakarta – Pressure mounted on Indonesian President Suharto on Saturday as the country's best-known opposition figure demanded the former general quit at the end of his term in March for leading the nation toward economic chaos.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of the man Suharto replaced when he took power in Indonesia in 1965, said the 76-year-old president should not be allowed to stand for re-election.

She said she was willing to take the helm.

In the English text of a speech, Megawati told a chanting crowd of 500 people in the garden of her residence on the outskirts of Jakarta: "Suharto's rule as president for 32 years is quite enough."

"I hereby take this opportunity to declare my determination to become the leader of our nation and our people if this is indeed the real consensus of the people," she said as supporters chanted "Long Live Mega."

Earlier on Saturday, shoppers thronged markets to stock up on essentials for the third day running as Indonesia reeled under the twin onslaught of financial turmoil and fears that food would either be in short supply or hit by hyper-inflation.

U.S. and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials were heading to the country to help defuse the crisis, sparked by perceptions that Suharto's government was backsliding out of commitments made to the IMF in exchange for a $43 billion bail-out plan in October.

But late on Saturday – in an apparent reaction to stinging international criticism – Suharto ordered the postponement or review of 15 major infrastructure projects worth several billion dollars due to the crisis.

State Secretary Murdiono, quoting Suharto, told the official Antara news agency that the projects to be reviewed included a number of power plants and toll-roads.

Megawati said the financial disaster was the work of "economic criminals."

"If the nation ends up having to bear this burden then striped prison uniforms should be sewn for the economic criminals who have destroyed our nation and our economic future," she thundered to loud applause.

What would just be political rhetoric in any other nation carries deep significance in Indonesia. Suharto, a former army general, has ruled the mainly Moslem nation of 200 million people with an iron grip since he took over from founding president Sukarno, Megawati's father, and has brooked little dissent.

Criticising him is a criminal offence.

Megawati, ousted as leader of the minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) by a government-backed faction in June 1996, is considered the only significant opposition figure.

In July that year, Jakarta was hit by its worst riots in more than two decades after supporters of Megawati were evicted from their party headquarters for refusing to give way to her government-backed rival who replaced her as head of the PDI.

At least five people were killed, more than a hundred injured and buildings and cars set ablaze by angry mobs after her supporters were attacked by police and rival partisans.

Suharto is widely expected to seek a seventh five-year term of office in March presidential elections but Megawati said he should not be allowed to do so.

A diplomatic analyst questioned whether Suharto would heed the calls to step down. "Suharto is known to be a fighter," he said.

Suharto's half-brother was quoted in the Kompas daily on Saturday as saying the former general wanted to retire but would only do so when he was assured that any successor could shoulder the responsibilities of leadership.

It was a dramatic end to a day when Indonesia was looking forward to a weekend breather from the punishment its rupiah currency and stock market have been taking.

But the focus shifted to food markets earlier in the day as crowds bought up rice, sugar, flour, cooking oil and milk.

Analysts said the situation was potentially explosive, since any paucity of food had even greater potential than the monetary crisis to trigger social unrest.

They said shortages of essentials in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the festival at the end of it could have dangerous implications for social stability.

The government signalled it was aware of the danger.

State news agency Antara said the government had raised short-term rice imports to two million tonnes from 1.5 million and that controlled prices of rice and flour would not be raised.

U.S. President Bill Clinton intervened in the crisis on Friday, telling Suharto that Indonesia had to comply with the IMF reforms and announcing he would send Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to the region this weekend.

Separately, IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and First Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer are also visiting Jakarta from early next week.

Indonesia has long been a major regional ally of the United States. The sprawling archipelago straddles the equator for some 3,000 miles (5,000 km) and major trade routes from the Far East to the West pass through its waters.

Until last week calls for his removal were unthinkable, but there are now public appeals for a change in government.

But what many analysts fear is the unrest that could accompany such change.

The only political transition since Indonesia gained independence from Dutch colonial rule over half a century ago was when Suharto took power from Sukarno in 1965 after what the government claims was an abortive Communist coup. Some 500,000 people were later killed in anti-Communist pogroms.