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M. Continuo

Tanzania prime minister offers to resign


    NAIROBI (Reuters) - Tanzanian Prime Minister Edward Lowassa tendered his resignation on Thursday to President Jakaya Kiwkete, the country's parliamentary speaker said.

    "Yes, he has submitted his resignation to the president. Itdoes not mean he has resigned. The president will decide(whether to accept it)," Speaker Samuel Sitta told Reuters bytelephone from Tanzania's administrative capital Dodoma.

    Sitta gave no reason why Lowassa, who was appointed primeminister in December 2005, had tendered his resignation now.

    Lowassa served previously as a minister with portfoliosincluding lands, human settlement, development, water andlivestock development.

    His resignation offer comes days after Kikwete was electedchairman of the African Union at a summit in Ethiopia.

    (Reporting by George Obulutsa; editing by Robert Woodward)