DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung said Yu decided to step down immediately because of his disagreement with a newly drafted "normal country resolution" that is set to become the party's platform for the 2008 presidential election.

Yu is scheduled to hold a news conference at 10: 30 a.m. to explain in detail his new decision, Lin said.

Yu originally planned to leave the post after the party's national congress slated for Sept. 30 as he has been indicted over misuse of special allowance funds set aside for his discretionary use during his tenures as Presidential Office secretary-general and as premier.

He changed his mind after other party bigwigs came to a decision Wednesday to just mildly change the wording of the "normal country resolution" instead of adopting his proposal to add a clause to the text to explicitly state the party's goal of changing the country's name to "Taiwan, " Lin said, adding that Yu decided to quit earlier for the sake of maintaining party unity.

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