By Amanda Ferguson
BELFAST -The leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party Edwin Poots is to step down just three weeks after taking power, he said in a statement.
"I have asked the party Chairman to commence an electoral process within the party to allow for a new leader of the Democratic Unionist Party to be elected," Poots said.
Hours earlier Poots was opposed by 24 of his party's 28 regional lawmakers on the nomination of a new first minister for the British province, a party source said.
They had been angered by a move from the government in London to speed the introduction of Irish language rights in an effort to convince Irish nationalists Sinn Fein to back the nomination.
Poots ally Paul Givan, 39, was confirmed as leader of Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive - put in place by the 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of sectarian violence - with Sinn Fein's consent.
Poots' resignation adds to political instability in Northern Ireland which is the focus of a trade spat between Britain and the European Union and has seen street violence fuelled by anger about restrictions on trade with the rest of the United Kingdom.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson; Writing by Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries; Editing by Catherine Evans and Grant McCool)