MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine Chief Justice resigns.

Argentina's Chief Justice Julio Nazareno resigned Friday following weeks of bitter conflict with the executive branch and congressional moves to impeach him, Supreme Court officials told to the press.

The resignation came as a committee of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of congress, took steps toward trial of the head of the Supreme Court on more than a dozen charges.

Impeachment proceedings against Nazareno had been scheduled to get underway next week, a legislative committee decided Thursday, as it increased the number of accusations against him.

The chamber's impeachment committee leveled another six charges against Nazareno, who already faced 16 counts of failing to carry out his duties.

Nazareno failed to appear as summoned before the committee on Thursday. On Wednesday night, his legal team submitted a 123-page motion seeking to refute the accusations leveled against the judge.

In the motion, Nazareno attributed the impeachment proceedings, which he said contain "numerous irregularities that are determining factors in its nullity," to "a certain quota of ignorance" and "political ends." He also accused 13 members of the impeachment committee of "manifest enmity." Those lawmakers unsuccessfully tried to initiate impeachment proceedings against Nazareno last year.

On Thursday, impeachment committee head Ricardo Falu declined to comment on Nazareno's statements but he did describe the jurist's motion as a "superficial document" that "fails to refute the accusations" made by the impeachment committee.

President Nestor Kirchner, who took office just over a month ago, has repeatedly called for a purging of the Supreme Court, calling the justices "power addicts." Amid the controversy, Justice Minister Gustavo Beliz on Wednesday said the government might initiatate criminal proceedings against Nazareno over a case that cost Argentina more than $135 million.

The so-called Meller case involves a suit filed against the government by a contracting firm over a $29 million contract.

Nazareno and four other justices ruled in favor of the contractor, forcing the government to pay $137.5 million in damages.

Gregorio Badeni, one of Nazareno's attorneys, said Thursday that Beliz "sins in audacity and irresponsibility," adding that the government's attitude toward the Supreme Court is inappropriate for "a democratic regime." In impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court justices, the lower house serves as the plaintiff, with approval from two-thirds of its 257 lawmakers needed to pass the case on to the Senate, where the cases are decided.