Ms Miceli has denied reports that $241,000 in dollars, euros and pesos was discovered during a routine bomb squad investigation last month. She admits $64,000 was found, and says that though she may have been stupid to have kept it in the bathroom, it was destined for a private property purchase and she had committed no crime. Officials initially said it could be accounted for in her sworn income statements but Ms Miceli later told reporters her brother lent most of it.

Sunday paper Perfil said the stash contained a wad of pesos bearing a special seal from the central bank, which can only distribute cash to financial institutions. While a prosecutor investigates the origin of the cash and lawmakers call for Ms Miceli to appear in Congress to explain herself, President Néstor Kirchner will be evaluating how much of a liability his economy minister has become in a scandal dubbed "toiletgate" by the media. "The most worrying thing is that if she's this clumsy and careless with her own money, what's she like managing the 160 billion peso [$51.5bn] 2007 budget?" said opposition lawmaker Esteban Bullrich.

A cabinet crisis would be a serious blow to Mr Kirchner, who has already lost his aura of invincibility after local election defeats. He is struggling to cope with a mounting energy crisis that could pose the most serious challenge for his wife, Cristina Fernández, who is running instead of him in presidential elections in October. Ms Miceli was never expected to stay on in a Cristina administration, but if the stain from the Toiletgate scandal begins to spread, she could see her career flushed away even sooner.