Scandal throws interim government into disarray

Acting Brazilian president Michel Temer's government faced its first major crisis on Monday when a key minister stepped aside following a leaked recording in which he appears to discuss using Dilma Rousseff's impeachment to derail a huge corruption probe.

Planning Minister Romero Juca said in a hurried appearance before television cameras that he would step aside from Tuesday. Although he did not resign, he was not expected to return, the Globo news site reported, quoting sources close to Temer.

The scandal threatened Temer just 11 days after taking power from Rousseff, whom the Senate suspended from the presidency on May 12 at the start of an impeachment trial on charges of breaking government accounting rules.