The announcement comes as demonstrations calling for the center-right leader to resign have triggered a political crisis and paralyzed major cities.

Paz's defense and education ministers resigned on Tuesday for unknown reasons, marking yet another dramatic development in the saga.

The president announced the submission of a bill that would authorize military force to control the protests, just one week after Congress repealed a law restricting his ability to invoke emergency measures.

The bill "is intended to strengthen the institutions and, in this specific case, to strengthen our armed forces in their actions," he announced during the swearing-in ceremony of his new Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano.

He reiterated his refusal to rule out declaring a state of emergency, which would curb some civil liberties including freedom of movement and assembly.

"The immediate task is to restore normality," said Justiniano, who was until now a junior minister acting as the country's anti-drug tsar.

"Dialogue is always open, but those who refuse to engage in dialogue cannot be allowed to paralyze the country," he added.

Authorities on Wednesday recorded almost 100 roadblocks nationwide, a typical protest tactic in Bolivia which is currently causing severe food, medicine and fuel shortages in La Paz.

The government has reported the deaths of seven people who did not receive timely medical care due to the blockades, and Paz has framed using the military to clear them as a "humanitarian" action.

He has also repeatedly called for dialogue with the protesters.

The Paz administration accuses former socialist president Evo Morales -- in hiding from trafficking allegations, which he denies -- of fomenting the unrest.

Morales told AFP in a recent interview that Bolivians are furious because Paz oversees "a government that is utterly submissive" to Washington.

"I am totally convinced this rebellion is against the neo-liberal model and the neo-colonial state," he said.