Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said his government has resigned, a step likely to pave the way for army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president.
"Today the cabinet took a decision to offer its resignation to the president of the republic," Beblawi said in a televised statement on Monday.
He gave no clear reason for the decision.
Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour asked Beblawi to run the government's affairs until a new prime minister was selected, the state-run al-Ahram news website reported.
Beblawi was appointed after the army toppled president Mohamed Morsi last July following mass protests against his rule.
Earlier, Al Ahram said in a report that the government had quit after a 15-minute cabinet meeting.
But Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, who has been following the story from Doha, said: "We're not even sure at this stage, with this resignation, exactly who it includes. Is it the entire cabinet?"
"We wouldn't expect that the defence minister, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will resign. He's the head of the military. You know, he is a key player," Johnston said. "He's the person who we consistently hear about as potentially running for the next president."
For Sisi to run for president, he would first need to leave his post of defence minister.
"This was done as a step that was needed ahead of Sisi's announcement that he will run for president," an Egyptian official told Reuters.
"Perhaps he [Sisi] will stay in his position and new members of the cabinet will come in," Johnston said.
"The last time that they appointed this cabinet after the military coup, they really got onto the case pretty fast and within a few weeks they had a new one," she said. "So I would expect that we won't see these positions empty for very long."
Sisi unveiled a political roadmap meant to lead to elections after toppling Morsi.
Morsi's removal triggered the bloodiest political crisis in Egypt's modern history, with security forces killing hundreds of his supporters and jailing thousands.
Hundreds of security personnel have also died in the turmoil.
(Aljazeera)
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