TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Ray Sansom relinquished his leadership position Friday in an unprecedented retreat from power that was choreographed to instill calm but gave way to confusion.

Using an obscure House rule, the embattled speaker announced he would temporarily ''recuse'' himself from the authority of his office and install a little-known legislator from Ocala to take over as acting speaker.

But Sansom's move, made only reluctantly on the urgent advice of colleagues, failed to quell anxiety in a chamber that has seen its own standing damaged amid allegations that Sansom abused his office to help friends and himself.

Sansom, 46, denies doing so and insists he will be cleared.

It was not clear Friday how long new Speaker Larry Cretul, 61, is expected to remain in power and some members openly questioned whether Sansom's half-measure departure, designed to allow for his return, was even permissible. Talk around the Capitol was about whether Sansom should fully resign the speakership and allow Republicans to hold a new election to replace him.

''This is a mess,'' said Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven. ``There's no page in the playbook that gives clear instructions on what to do and how to do it.''

Sansom, R-Destin, will retain his House seat as he faces investigations from a grand jury, a special House investigator and the Florida Commission on Ethics over his accepting an unadvertised job at his hometown college on the same day he became one of the three most powerful politicians in Florida.

The investigations were triggered by a series of stories by the Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau that detailed how, in the two years before becoming speaker, Sansom helped the college get about $35 million in accelerated or extra money to the school, including $6 million for an airport project that's similar to a jet hangar a Sansom friend was trying to build.

The newspaper revelations about the funding and Sansom's close ties to the president of Northwest Florida State College mounted over the holidays. Legislators were reticent to criticize Sansom, even as they whispered among themselves about the perception his dealings had created.

The breaking point appeared to be Monday's commencement of a grand jury investigation -- an ordeal that's could take months and extend well beyond the legislative session that begins March 3. Several top legislative leaders talked with Sansom and urged him to step aside.

''Effective immediately, I have decided to recuse myself from the exercise of my duties as Speaker of the House of Representatives,'' Sansom said in a statement released at 12:59 p.m. that will forever link him as the first House speaker in Florida ever to step aside amid a cloud of investigations.

``The allegations and reports associated with these proceedings have caused my family grave pain and this has prompted my decision. I expect positive outcomes and am confident that when the facts are known, my honesty and integrity will be confirmed.''

The new speaker, Cretul, is a soft-spoken real estate agent and Vietnam War vet. He is well respected, but is not known to be especially ambitions and is not said to be eyeing a permanent leadership post. Cretul has shared a condo with Sansom in Tallahassee.

The House updated its website Friday afternoon to highlight an archive photo of Cretul standing at the podium.

In relinquishing his role, Sansom appears to have used House Rule 2.5, ''Appointment of a Temporary Presiding Officer,'' in naming Cretul acting speaker ``in the event of the Speaker's death, illness, removal or inability to act, until the Speaker's successor is elected.''

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