Kuwait's emir on Tuesday asked the outgoing prime minister to form a new government after the cabinet resgined to avoid possible questioning over the issue of unrest by Shi'ites in neighbouring Bahrain.
The old cabinet quit to avoid the grilling by parliament of three ministers, all members of the ruling Sunni al-Sabah family, amid calls for political and economic reform.
Lawmakers had asked to question the ministers in the latest of a series of challenges by an unusually assertive Arab parliament that have delayed important economic reforms.
Kuwait's parliament, the most outspoken in a region mostly dominated by autocratic rulers, has triggered numerous cabinet resignations or reshuffles through questioning.
The Gulf state's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, issued a decree re-appointing Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah -- the ruler's nephew -- to form another cabinet, KUNA said.
While tough questioning of ministers is an everyday occurrence in most parliaments, in Kuwait it is more akin to a direct challenge to the individual and an indirect challenge to the ruler, who has the last say in politics.
The news service of al-Watan newspaper, owned by a member of the ruling family, has said the foreign minister faced questioning by Shi'ite lawmaker Saleh Ashour that could "provoke sectarianism". Ashour has voiced support for Bahraini protesters.
Several hundred Kuwaitis demonstrated last month calling for a new prime minister and political freedoms, but the world's fourth-largest oil exporter has not experienced anything on the scale of the unrest in Bahrain.
Reuters
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