Stockholm Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds on Tuesday stepped down after months of fierce criticism of her handling of Asia's tsunami crisis and allegations of lying about her involvement in shutting down a website which had posted Prophet Mohammed cartoons.
The resignation comes months ahead of Sweden's general election in September, which the ruling Social Democrats, of which she is a member, are not certain to win.
"I believe that the current situation is impossible for me. It is damaging the government, the party and the ministry of foreign affairs and that is why I have chosen to resign," she told a news conference.
Freivalds will be replaced by Vice Prime Minister Bo Ringholm, although Prime Minister Goeran Persson said this was just a temporary solution.
Freivalds and Persson admitted on February 16 that the government's slow handling of the 2004 Asian tsunami crisis, in which 543 Swedes died, caused additional suffering.
"I am the first to regret that we didn't realize the extent (of the crisis), and I have apologized for that," Persson testified then.
The foreign minister, who spent the evening of the tsunami disaster in the theatre, resisted calls for her resignation for months despite damning evidence, with Persson's backing.
But on Monday she was back in the spotlight for her alleged role in the closing down of a website which had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed which have caused an uproar in the Muslim world.
It emerged that Freivalds had advance knowledge of pressure put on internet host Levonlines by her ministry to shut down the website of far-right party Sweden Democrats after the site posted Mohammed cartoons in February.
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