Provincial Assembly deputies yesterday voted to indefinitely suspend their current session and rally behind their provincial Governor. The move was seen as taking a political battle over proposed reforms in Taiwan's government structure one step further. The deputies said they had to act together to protest against the central Government's controversial plans to dismember the provincial apparatus. Deputies from the ruling Kuomintang and the opposition New Party agreed to the move after colleagues from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) staged a walkout. A majority of the 79-member assembly agreed the body should halt its session until Taiwan Governor James Soong Chu-yu changed his mind about stepping down. Mr Soong's resignation, which has sent shock waves through Taiwan's political circles, was in protest against the planned marginalisation of the provincial government. The reforms were agreed upon by Kuomintang and DPP leaders as part of a broad consensus reached last week at the National Development Conference. Angered by the Kuomintang-DPP deal that would suspend provincial elections pending the provincial government's eventual dismemberment, Mr Soong has remained out of sight since his surprise announcement on Tuesday. Meeting yesterday to discuss the fallout from Mr Soong's resignation and the provincial government's future, Provincial Assembly deputies voted to stage their own 'Taiwan Province Development Conference' as a means of challenging the national conference's results. They said officials from local, county, provincial and central government institutions would be invited to speak their minds on whether the provincial Government should be abolished. The protest moves had strong support among Kuomintang deputies, even though the party dispatched a vice-secretary-general and its organisation chief to the assembly yesterday in an effort to avoid confrontation. In Taipei, President Lee Teng-hui was tightlipped on Mr Soong's resignation. But Vice-President Lien Chan told his Interior Minister and Vice-Governor, Wu Jung-ming , that Mr Soong could take as much leave as he needed to cool off. The President and Vice-President hoped Mr Soong would 'exercise patience for the benefit of the nation', Interior Minister Lin Feng-cheng said.