ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Acting President Goodluck Jonathan said on Tuesday it was premature to talk of him making a bid for the presidency in polls due by early next year and called for unity in the ruling party.

"(Jonathan) decried a situation where some persons were already positioning for the 2011 elections even when an electoral timetable is yet to be released," his spokesman Ima Niboro said in a statement.

"He warned that he would not tolerate a situation where his name is dragged into these premature permutations with a deliberate intent to heat up the polity," the statement said.