DAKAR, Nov 21 (AFP) - Senegal's former president Abdou Diouf, leader of the
Socialist Party (PS) since 1996, has resigned from the party to become head
of the International Francophone Organisation, party officials said
Thursday.
   Diouf "has officially told us of his decision to step down as president
of the PS to take up his mission as secretary-general of the OIF," party
central committee member Abdoulaye Wilane said.
   The former head of state, who was defeated in a presidential poll by
Abdoulaye Wade of the Senegalese Democratic Party in March 2000, was
elected secretary general of the group of French-speaking nations in
October.
   Wilane said that in the new job Diouf is due to take up in January, he
"will be in a position of referee, mediator and conciliator" and, because
of these duties, "can no longer lead a political party".
   Diouf, 67, had already made clear that he planned to step down from
politics after his party lost the March 2000 election, and he retired to
France where he currently lives.
   His resignation letter was dated November 11 but only read out to a
meeting of the PS's political bureau on Wednesday, Wilane said.
   "The PS is in a very delicate situation," he added, saying that its
outgoing leader had written that he "kept his socialist convictions" and
"encourages party activists to remain faithful to socialist values, Senegal
and the republic."
   When Diouf announced more than two years ago that he planned to go, he
left a succession crisis behind him.
   "We didn't decided on his replacement, because it wasn't the best time,
we were just coming out of a defeat at the polls and we needed to take the
time to stabilise the party" after some members rallied to Wade, Wilane
said.
   The PS is currently run by Ousmane Tanor Dieng, whose post of first
secretary was initially created in 1996 to take some of the management
burden off Diouf's shoulders.
   Wilane said that the future party leadership would be clear after a PS
congress planned "for as a early as possible in 2003, probably by March."
   Diouf was elected chief executive of the Francophone group of 56 nations
and provinces, consisting mainly of former French colonies, at its last
summit in Beirut, Lebanon. He replaced Egypt's Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

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