JAKARTA - Indonesia's billionaire Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie will leave the Cabinet next year, a spokesman said Friday, as the global economic crisis continued to batter his business empire.

"He has no interest in returning as a minister for the term 2009-2014," Bakrie's spokesman Lalu Mara Satriawangsa said.

The tycoon and political powerbroker would however "continue to be a member" of the Golkar party, the main party in the ruling coalition under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he said.

Bakrie denied reports that he was interested in taking over from Vice President Jusuf Kalla as head of Golkar ahead of elections next year.

"That's not correct. The focus of Golkar is to continue efforts to win the legislative elections," Satriawangsa said.

Bakrie's family business empire ranging from construction to coal and palm oil has been hard hit by the global credit crunch and the slump in commodity prices.

Shares in the group's companies have nosedived as much as 90 per cent as it struggles to pay off 1.2 billion dollars in debt due next year.

Until recently, Bakrie was considered the richest man in Indonesia with a family fortune estimated by Forbes Asia magazine at 5.4 billion dollars.

In comments to Forbes.com this week, he said he wanted to spend more time with his family and his charitable organisation.

One of his companies allegedly triggered a devastating mud volcano while drilling for gas in East Java two years ago, killing 13 and displacing more than 36,000.

- AFP/ir