(Changes source, adds detail)
MOSCOW, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Russia's acting Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin, rejected in a bid to be confirmed in office
by parliament on Monday, said he would nonetheless shortly
propose an acting cabinet to President Boris Yeltsin.
"As the situation is extremely grave across all of industry
...in my acting capacity I am now obliged, in a day or two,
depending on what the president does, to put forward proposals
for forming a government," he told the State Duma lower house.
A Kremlin aide said before the vote that Yeltsin would keep
Chernomyrdin on as acting premier, giving the Communist-led
parliament a second chance to accept his nominee next week.
"The country cannot go without a government," said
Chernomyrdin, who was nominated by Yeltsin a week ago, five
months after being sacked as premier.
He needs the Duma's approval to form a fully fledged
government.
Ministries are still headed by those who served under former
prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko, who Yeltsin sacked last week.
At the weekend, Chernomyrdin said he was setting up a
working group to deal with Russia's severe financial crisis. It
included acting finance minister Mikhail Zadornov and central
bank chief Sergei Dubinin, both of whom sat with Chernomyrdin
throughout the debate on his confirmation on Monday.
The group is headed by reformist acting Deputy Prime
Minister Boris Fyodorov.
"Whatever happens, I have to take decisions, because life
goes on," Interfax news agency quoted Chernomyrdin as saying as
he left the Duma after the vote.
He said he would take steps to make sure payments due to
soldiers, students and miners were made.
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