Britain's Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has called a leadership contest, challenging any party colleague who wishes to stand against him to come forward.
In a statement a short while ago, Mr Kennedy also confirmed that he has received professional treatment for an alcohol problem.
Charles Kennedy
He said that over the past 18 months he had been coming to terms with and seeking to cope with his drink problem.
He believed the issue was now "essentially resolved".
People close to him knew this had been a struggle and for extended periods he had consumed "no alcohol at all". "As a matter of fact, I haven't had a drink for the past two months and I don't intend to in the future," he said.
Mr Kennedy said he had "learnt the hard way" of the need to face up to "this medical problem" which was dealt with successfully by many others on a daily basis.
" I've chosen not to acknowledge it publicly before in this way, because if at all possible, I wanted to overcome it privately. So in a sense, this admission today, comes as something of a personal relief," he said.
Mr Kennedy said that given the personal nature of the statement he did not plan to make any further comment today and he did not take questions from reporters.
"I should have been willing to talk about it more openly before. I wish that I had. Now this issue has, understandably of course, been of concern to several of my parliamentary colleagues and they have been both understanding and supportive and I am extremely grateful to them for that."
However, Mr Kennedy acknowledged the issue also lay beneath much of the current speculation about the leadership "within the parliamentary party itself".
He said he considered himself "capable and in good health" and he remained determined to carry on as leader.
"This party's members have shown me tremendous support over the years and overwhelmingly so in recent weeks and days. It's a privilege to serve as their leader. I want to continue doing so, not least because Ibelieve that the prospects in front of us in this Parliament are very great ones indeed," Mr Kennedy said.
"Given this statement today, I believe it is only fair now to give our party members their say over my continuing leadership. It is open, of course, to any colleague who believes that they can better represent the longer-term interests of the party to stand against me in such a leadership election and I am therefore requesting that the party puts in place the necessary steps to enable this election to take place immediately."
Speculation over the future of Charles Kennedy 's leadership surfaced just months after he led the party to its best general election result in 80 years.
But Mr Kennedy has been unable to shake off persistent questions about his leadership since he took over from Paddy Ashdown in 1999.
However, this evening, one of the frontrunners to succeed Charles Kennedy pulled out of the race to become Liberal Democrat leader.
Home Affairs spokesman Mark Oaten had been widely tipped to throw his hat in the ring if Mr Kennedy called a contest.
Many in the party viewed the 62 seats secured last May as a disappointment, fearing they had failed to take advantage of the best opportunity in a generation to make a real breakthrough at Westminster.
Some blamed their leader's laid-back campaigning style for their failure to make more inroads into Labour territory.
Additional reporting: PA