Tim Dodd, Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid left Jakarta yesterday on an overseas trip which takes him out of the country for two weeks while a leadership crisis grows at home.

Speaking at the airport before his departure, he urged Indonesians to "be calm". "There is nothing going on. Mrs Mega is here," he said referring to Vice-President Megawati Soekarnoputri who will be in charge during his long absence.

But Vice-President Megawati is the focus of plotting by key figures across the political spectrum who want her to replace the President. They will use the President's absence to further undermine his shaky position.

But one of the President's key political foes – Mr Arifin Panigoro who is from the anti-Wahid faction of Mrs Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle – said yesterday that party officials were in talks with the Muslim "central axis" parties and the former ruling party Golkar to form a coalition to back a Megawati presidency.

Mrs Megawati has not yet indicated her attitude to the proposed coalition but parliamentarian, Mr Pramono Anung, who is close to the Vice-President, yesterday downplayed the significance of the talks.

There are growing indications that, when he returns on March 7, President Wahid will try to reshuffle his cabinet with broader representation in an attempt to shore up his support. Student leaders from the student wing of Mrs Megawati's party, who met President Wahid on Wednesday, said yesterday that the President had signalled plans for a reshuffle.

During his absence President Wahid is leaving behind a weak government and a litany of problems – including ethnic fighting which has raged on the island of Kalimantan for several days, leaving a death toll of at least 75 with many beheaded in ritual killings.

Problems are also mounting on the economic front, with Indonesia in talks this week with the IMF to break a deadlock which threatens continued support for its economic reform program. The IMF is insisting that Indonesia ensure its central bank remains independent, that it speed asset sales and that it prevent local regional governments from borrowing.

And in Jakarta the Government's sales program for assets of failed banks is threatened by nationalist opposition to the $700 million sale of palm oil plantations to a Malaysian firm, Kumpulan Guthrie.

On his trip President Wahid – who has already visited more than 50 countries in his 16-month presidency – will visit Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Egypt, ending with a Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.