Kuwait Finance Minister resigns

Reports from Kuwait say that the Finance Minister, Nasser al-Roudhan, who has been accused of mismanaging funds, has announced his resignation.

The minister is quoted in newspapers as saying his resignation -- which he was now making public -- had been tendered six weeks earlier to the Prime Minister Sheikh Saad al-Abdallah al-Sabah.

Mr al-Roudhan said he had carried out his duties with honesty, but he predicted his opponents would exploit his resignation.

On Wednesday, a parliamentary committee called on him to resign, saying he was personally responsible for the alleged loss of some nine-hundred million dollars in government investments related to the country's social security program.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service