Romanian transport minister resigns

The Romanian Prime Minister has accepted the resignation of the transport minister Traian Basescu hours after being attacked in a morning newspaper article.

The clash is the latest crisis in the Romanian coalition government and follows last week's resignation of the foreign minister, Adrian Severin.

He had alleged that several unnamed political leaders and newspaper editors were agents of foreign powers.

The Prime Minister has said he will not tolerate such indiscipline in future, but the Democratic Party, to which bothMinisters belonged, has said it still supports them.

The Romanian parliament has approved the appointment of Andrei Plesu, a former Culture Minister and non party figure, as the country's new foreign minister, replacing Mr Severin.

Romania is currently ruled by a four party coalition government, led by the National Peasant Party

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service