Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has resigned after accusations that she acted unconstitutionally over the closure of a website which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The resignation comes just six months before the Social Democrats face what analysts expect to be a tight election.
Ms Freivalds was also widely criticised over the government's response to the Asian tsunami in which around 500 Swedes died.
She will be replaced temporarily by Deputy Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm.
Opposition politicians had called for her to resign saying she gave misleading information over the Foreign Ministry's involvement in shutting down the website showing the cartoons.
Ms Freivalds originally said she did not know that the ministry had contacted the web hosting company.
But documents published this week showed she had been informed that an official had spoken with the company which then closed the website belonging to the anti-immigrant Swedish Democrat party.
Political pressure on a company to close such a website would be against the Swedish constitution.
