Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling Golkar party agreed early Friday to nominate President B.J. Habibie as its sole candidate for the next presidency to be decided in November, the official Antara news agency said.

Habibie, 62, was vice president when former president Suharto stepped down amid widespread protests last year, and named him as his successor.

Antara said chapter leaders, the central executive committee of Golkar and leaders of affiliated organisations, decided in a meeting in the early hours of Friday to nominate Habibie as the party's candidate.

Four other contenders – Golkar chairman and former state secretary Akbar Tanjung, top economic minister Ginanjar Kartasasmita, military chief and Defence Minister General Wiranto, and the governor of Yogyakarta, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, were endorsed as Golkar candidates for the vice presidency.

"The heads of the provincial chapters and representatives of the mass organisations ... agreed that Habibie becomes the presidential candidate and the other four as vice presidential candidates," Tanjung told journalists after the meeting ended at around 3:00 am.

The meeting was attended by the leaders of the 27 provincial chapters and representatives of 36 affiliated organisations.

Tanjung said 20 provincial chapters and five of the affiliated organisations wanted Habibie as the sole presidential candidate for the party. The others either abstaned or were split among the other contenders, he said.

The decision to nominate Habibie as sole candidate was reached after 90 minutes of lobbying by the participants which started at midnight.

Golkar vice chairman Marzuki Darusman was Thursday quoted by the press as saying that opposition within the party to nominating Habibie as a sole candidate was linked to dissatisfaction with the slow pace of a corruption probe into Suharto.

Darusman said public attention would focus on Golkar's sole candidate and that therefore "everything that the candidate does will have an impact on Golkar as a whole."

Golkar had in the past always endorsed a single candidate for the presidency: Suharto.

As Suharto's main political vehicle, Golkar swept all six elections since 1971. It is now trying to revamp its image ahead of Indonesia's first elections since the former leader's resignation in May, 1998.