The Prime Minister of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir has dissolved his cabinet.

No official explanation has been given but the prime minister, Choudhry Sultan Mahmood, said a new cabinet would be named shortly.

Since the military coup in Pakistan last October there has been a significant reduction in the size of provincial governments.

Correspondents say that Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, a semi-autonomous province, has come under pressure from the military authorities to further reduce the size of its seventeen-strong cabinet - a move also favoured by opposition parties which say that a large cabinet is a burden on the impoverished area.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service