AKIPRESS.COM - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Tuesday her vice president was orchestrating a conspiracy to topple her, as efforts to impeach the leftist leader gained momentum in Congress, Reuters reported.

Aided by her mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Rousseff scrambled to secure enough support from a dwindling array of allies to block impeachment in a lower house vote due on Sunday that analysts project she will lose.

A congressional committee voted on Monday by a larger-than-expected margin to recommend that Rousseff be impeached for breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014, a charge Rousseff says was trumped up to remove her from office.

Political risk consultancies estimate at 60 to 65 percent the odds of impeachment clearing the lower house, since the committee vote was expected to sway undecided lawmakers to join the opposition.

While Rousseff fights for her political survival, her government is largely paralyzed as Brazil, the world's seventh-largest economy, struggles with a deep recession and its biggest-ever corruption scandal.

"They now are conspiring openly, in the light of day, to destabilize a legitimately elected president," Rousseff said in a speech on Tuesday, referring to an audio message sent by Vice President Michel Temer to his supporters on Monday in which he called for a government of national unity to overcome Brazil's political crisis.

The congressional committee's 38-27 decision was backed by Temer's PMDB party, formerly her main coalition ally. The party's defection last month greatly increased the likelihood the lower house will send her impeachment to the Senate.

Temer would take over if the Senate agrees to suspend Rousseff and proceed with a trial against her.

The rift between Rousseff and Temer reached breaking point on Monday after the audio message was released, which Temer said was unintentional.

"The conspirators have been unmasked," Rousseff said in her speech. She did not mention Temer by name but cited the message as evidence of what she called an attempted "coup."

In an interview broadcast on Globo News late on Tuesday, Temer responded to Rousseff's remarks saying he was ready to take the presidency. "If destiny takes me to that position... I will be ready."

Looking relaxed and smiling, the vice president denied he'd been plotting against Rousseff and said he did not plan to resign if the lower house votes against impeachment.

Aides say he has been preparing in case he has to replace her, so that he can restore confidence with a business-friendly agenda aimed at pulling the economy out of a tailspin.

Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa canceled a trip to the International Monetary Fund's spring meetings in Washington to remain in Brasilia for Sunday's impeachment vote. In its World Economic Outlook on Tuesday, the IMF said Brazil's prolonged recession would be a drag on growth in Latin America for the next two years.