World Bulletin / News Desk

Brazil's embattled President Michel Temer won a reprieve Sunday when a key coalition partner delayed a decision on whether to abandon him over an explosive corruption scandal.

Street protests called by leftist groups around the country also appeared to have had only a modest impact, further easing the sense of intense crisis for the center-right president.

Temer has been fighting for his political life since being placed under investigation for allegedly obstructing a corruption probe by paying hush money to jailed former speaker of the house Eduardo Cunha. Temer is also accused of taking millions of reais in bribes.

On Sunday the key ally to his center-right PMDB party, the PSDB social democrats, had been set to decide whether to withdraw -- potentially dealing the government of Latin America's biggest country a death blow.

However, less than five hours before the session was scheduled to start, a spokesman for the party told AFP it had been cancelled.

Instead, Temer was meeting with ministers and legislators at the presidential residency, a spokesman for Temer said. Earlier plans to host a dinner for the allies were dropped due to lukewarm responses, Folha newspaper reported in yet another indication of Temer's struggle to retain authority.

Despite growing demands for his resignation or an impeachment trial, Temer argues that he is needed to steer economic reforms aimed at pulling Brazil out of a deep recession.

He has also asked the Supreme Court to suspend the investigation into his alleged crimes, arguing that the main evidence -- a secretly recorded audio -- had been doctored. The court is due to examine this Wednesday.