Water Minister Nathan Rees, a former greenkeeper and rubbish collector, will take over. He will be sworn in this afternoon.

Mr Iemma faced a caucus revolt this morning and Mr Rees had the numbers to overthrow him. Asked as he walked into a meeting of Labor MPs with Carmel Tebbutt whether they were the new leadership team, Mr Rees replied: "Yes." He emerged from the meeting saying he would not announce his new cabinet until next week.

But he said he would "start work for the people of NSW today". It is understood that there is so much division within the dominant Right faction that Mr Iemma appeared to have lost a significant amount of support from once-loyal backers.

The right-wing powerbrokers Eddie Obeid and Joe Tripodi are understoood to have told Mr Iemma that he had lost the support of MPs and would not survive a caucus meeting. The pressure intensified after outgoing Treasurer Michael Costa set off a series of bombs at his press conference earlier this morning. AAP reports: Seventeen years ago Morris Iemma made his political foray under the slogan "A local who listens'' - but today he has been forced to hear the voice of his Labor colleagues.

It has not been smooth sailing for the NSW premier in recent times as the now 47-year-old spent months at loggerheads with union officials over his proposed $25 billion power privatisation scheme. His plans, which he said were integral to the state's financial future, angered unions and rank and file ALP members.

It also caused a huge rift with state Labor head office, which was behind an attempt in July to unseat him as premier. The power sell-off scheme was scrambled by the opposition last week, and today its orchestrator, Michael Costa, also lost his position as treasurer as part of a reshuffle following the shock resignation of deputy premier John Watkins. A member of the dominant Right faction, Mr Iemma became premier on August 3, 2005, after Bob Carr's retirement.

Some 20 years earlier, he began his journey with the Labor movement with the Commonwealth Bank Employees Union. A law and economics graduate, Mr Iemma's political career officially started in May 1991 when he defeated the sitting Liberal to be elected as Member for Hurstville.

The seat was abolished in 1999, but he was preselected for the seat of Lakemba, which he has held since. He has held various portfolios in the ministry, including public works and services, sport and recreation, health, state development, and was treasurer for the first six months of his premiership. Mr Iemma held the citizenship portfolio while premier, but his biggest tasks were dealing with ongoing government problems in health and transport and with internal party pickering.

He was re-elected premier in March 2007, after admitting to the government's failings and asking voters for more time to fix the problems.

However, his popularity has continued to slide as the government lurched from crisis to crisis. In October 2007, the government set up an inquiry into Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital after a woman miscarried in an emergency department toilet the previous month.

In November, the government was forced to set up an inquiry into the Department of Community Services (DoCS) following the deaths of a number of children in its care. The health care crisis flared again in January 2008 with a statewide inquiry into NSW hospitals after "systemic problems'' were blamed for the death of a schoolgirl at Royal North Shore Hospital. A strong family man, born and educated in Sydney to Italian parents, Mr Iemma married in 1997 and has four young children with his wife Santina.

He is a self-confessed VB-drinker who supports the Sydney Swans and St George Illawarra Dragons football teams, and will now seeming have more time to enjoy some leisure pursuits.

