President Evo Morales said Friday that a political battle over demands for autonomy by Bolivia’s largest state should be resolved by a nationwide referendum.

The Bolivian president spoke in an interview with The Associated Press less than two days before the eastern state of Santa Cruz votes on a broad declaration of autonomy from Morales’ government _ a vote the president calls illegal.

Morales said he would consider working some of the state’s demands into Bolivia’s new constitution if voters nationwide approved.

“If we politicians can’t find a way to agree, let the people decide with their vote,” Morales said in the interview.

Santa Cruz leaders, who could not immediately be reached for comment on the proposal, want autonomy to keep more of the state’s natural gas revenues and shelter their vast plantations and ranches from Morale’s plans for land redistribution. The declaration is expected to pass in a landslide.

Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, counters that he needs a strong central government to spread Santa Cruz’s wealth to the rest of South America’s poorest country.

He has proposed a constitution that would outline a detailed bill of rights and considerable autonomy for the country’s 36 indigenous groups. The constitution has yet to go to voters.

“Maybe we’re wrong to defend the new constitution exactly as it’s been drafted,” he said.