Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Lithuania's parliament started impeachment proceedings against President Rolandas Paksas, who is opposed by the nation's largest political parties as the future European Union member prepares for general elections.

Lawmakers in the 141-member chamber voted 62 to 11 with three abstaining to impeach him and ask the Constitutional Court to pick an overseer judge by March 10. Paksas is charged with violating the constitution by leaking state secrets, rewarding a financial supporter with citizenship and illegally influencing companies. Paksas has denied the charges.

``At first they accused me of ties with the Russian mafia, now all that's left are technical legal issues,'' Paksas said in an interview last week in Vilnius. ``If justice and truth prevail, I will remain in office.''

The impeachment of the 47-year-old head of state, who resigned as prime minister twice in the past five years, may help his Liberal Democrat Party in fall elections as Paksas has strong support outside the capital, said Lauras Bielinis, who teaches political science at Vilnius University.

To oust the president in a vote expected less than a month before Lithuania and nine other countries join the EU on May 1, at least 85 lawmakers need to back at least one charge. Speaker Arturas Paulauskas, who would serve as head of state until a new presidential election, said there are enough votes to do so.

Impeachment supporters hope the move will strengthen the former Soviet republic's reputation for rooting out corruption. The president, who is mainly responsible for foreign policy, can veto laws and presents new governments for parliament's approval. He has little influence on domestic issues like economic policy.

Confidence in Economy

``We don't see this having any major impact on the credit worthiness of this country or its EU accession timetable,'' said Timothy Ash, the chief economist at Bear Stearns International in London.

Lithuania, whose economy grew an estimated 8.9 percent last year, is luring foreign capital to develop its technology, energy and transport industries as it prepares to join the EU on May 1. It plans to sell as much as 600 million euros ($759 million) of bonds to global investors in coming weeks.

Lithuania has a foreign-debt rating of A3 at Moody's Investors Service and A- at Standard & Poor's. Both are six levels from the top grade and were upgraded in the past month.

The ruling coalition of Social Democrats and Social Liberals as well as the LiberalCentrist and Homeland Union opposition parties have repeatedly urged Paksas to resign since the accusations surfaced at the end of October.

Pro-Paksas Rallies

In response, he has staged almost daily small-town rallies to deny wrongdoing and criticize what he calls a ``conspiracy'' by the political elite.

``I don't think we'll see riots, but we will see a painstaking legal procedure and further declarations by Paksas that he is innocent,'' Bielinis said. ``His party is good at winning votes but not so good at actually ruling, as Paksas' own record shows.''

Before public hearings and the impeachment vote, parliament will ask the Constitutional Court to give its opinion of the charges against Paksas, which are based on questioning of more than 40 witnesses and materials from the State Security Department and General Prosecutor's Office.

The Constitutional Court ruled in December that Paksas violated the constitution by granting citizenship by special decree to Jurij Borisov, owner of the Avia Baltika aviation company, even after the State Security Department told the president that Borisov might be involved in arms trading.

Borisov, who financed Paksas's election campaign in 2002, denies the allegations. Paksas says he followed normal procedures to give him back a Lithuanian passport after the businessman lost it for accepting Russian citizenship.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bryan Bradley in Vilnius at Bbradley4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 20, 2004 04:53 EST