Iraqi Prime Minister accepts electricity minister's resignation

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday accepted the resignation of his besieged electricity minister who had been the target of public fury and protests over draconian power rationing. Karim Wahid offered to quit on Monday and Maliki backed him 24 hours later, saying he remained the best person to solve the problem despite angry weekend demonstrations in the southern city of Basra where police shot two men dead. However, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed Wahid's departure.

- It is correct that Electricity Minister Karim Wahid's resignation has been accepted- Dabbagh said, saying Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani was being considered as a successor.

- There is a chance that he might but it is not yet decided- Dabbagh said of Shahristani's chances of taking

on the electricity portfolio.

Maliki warned Iraqis on Tuesday that two more years of power shortages lay ahead as there was no quick fix to the issue, which worsened dramatically in the wake of the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

- The power stations being built by Siemens and GE will take two years to complete at least- he said, referring to the German and US engineering giants who are heavily involved in bolstering Iraq's inadequate power network.

Two demonstrators were killed

Maliki described as "rioters" the hundreds of men who took to the streets of Basra on Saturday in heat that hit highs of 54 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit). Police opened fire after the protesters smashed the windows of a provincial government office. Two demonstrators were killed, a health official said on Wednesday, updating an earlier toll. Iraqis receive power for just one hour in five, or less, from the national grid. Only the few with access to their own generators and fuel have been able to refrigerate foodstuffs or air-condition their homes.

Public anger with the work of the electricity ministry, most of it directed at Wahid, boiled over as temperatures soared in central and southern Iraq. On Monday, hundreds of angry demonstrators threw stones at riot police guarding the Dhi Qar provincial government headquarters in the southern city of Nasiriyah, putting 17 of them in hospital, including a lieutenant colonel. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned that the Basra protest could be a harbinger of more trouble, as prolonged "bickering" over who should be Iraq's next prime minister sparks mounting discontent among ordinary people more concerned by the lack of basic services.

- What we saw in Basra on Saturday was a warning- Zebari said.

-It was the writing on the wall. The anger they showed was extraordinary- he said in an AFP interview on Monday.

Electricity supplies

In his resignation offer on state television, Wahid charged that the demonstrations had been "politicised" in a way that was damaging to resolving power generation problems. His ministry charged on Monday that neighbouring Iran was partly responsible for the power rationing problems through cutting the supply of 250 megawatts to the Iraqi national national grid. But Iranian energy ministry official Mehran Erfani said on Wednesday that the interruption had been very brief and had no impact on the overall availability of power in Iraq.

"Iran's electricity supplies to Iraq were disrupted for only a few hours due to a fall in voltage, excessive use and high temperature," Erfani told Iran's English-language Press TV.

"Electricity supplies to Iraq have now resumed," the television channel's website quoted him as saying.

"The Iraqi minister's resignation was due to domestic issues."