JAKARTA -- Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday backed away from declaring a state of emergency, his key line of defense against looming impeachment.

Presidential spokesman Adhie Massardi said Wahid had not ruled out a state of emergency -- which would allow him to dissolve Parliament and call a snap election -- but now considered it unlikely.

"The president is unlikely to do it," Massardi told Reuters by telephone from the tourist island of Bali, where Wahid was on an official visit.

"The road towards a political compromise is getting stronger and the possibility to declare a state of emergency is very slim now."

Wahid, hours away from possible impeachment, had given his political foes until 6:00 p.m. (1100 GMT) Friday to agree to a compromise or he would carry out his threat.

But that prompted the top legislature to issue its own warning, threatening a snap impeachment hearing within hours if he went ahead with a state of emergency.

The supreme People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is otherwise due to convene from August 1 to consider dumping Wahid over his erratic 21-month rule.

He is widely expected to fall, whenever the MPR sits.

It is doubtful if the 60-year-old Muslim cleric has enough support in the military, police and bureaucracy to call a state of emergency.

Sources very close to Wahid have also previously said the man who built a reputation as one of Indonesia's leading democrats during former president Suharto's autocratic, army-backed rule would not carry out such a threat and it is unclear if Wednesday's comments bring a compromise closer.

Wahid, in Bali to meet Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman, said he was confident of a compromise but it had to be within the Constitution.

"I am sure things will remain under control and that there will be a compromise," the official Antara news agency quoted Wahid as saying.

"We cannot violate the Constitution -- the Constitution has appointed me and MRS Mega, therefore (we) can't be touched," he added.

Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who also heads the country's largest party, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), takes over from Wahid if he is ousted.

On Tuesday in the North Sulawesi capital of Manado, Wahid said he and Megawati were a one-package deal and she should also step down if he was forced from power.