Kyrgyzstan's acting leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Saturday he would stand as a candidate in the nation's new presidential election set on June 26.

Bakiyev, who proclaimed himself as acting president and prime minister on Friday, told journalists: "I think I should be a candidate in the presidential elections. I think I will be too."

The upper chamber of the Kyrgyz parliament earlier set June 26for presidential elections to replace the ousted President Askar Akayev.

The decision was passed by two-thirds of the lawmakers who attended the emergency session, according to an official at the scene.

The lawmakers also decided the upper parliament will continue to perform its duties until June 26, 2005.

Bakiyev, a 55-year-old engineer, was freed on Thursday after opposition protests ousted the veteran President Askar Akayev.

Like many in the new leadership, he is a former government official who served during Akayev's rule. He was named as prime minister in 2001-2002 before he was forced to resign after deadly ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the southern city of Osh.

Source: Xinhua