ASTANA (Kazakhstan), Jan 8: Kazakh Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov resigned unexpectedly on Monday, forcing the entire cabinet to quit and casting doubt on who will head the oil producing state's government.

Former Soviet Kazakhstan, the largest republic in Central Asia, borders China and Russia and holds huge energy reserves exploited by Western companies looking to circumvent the Opec.

“I hope that you will continue to work in this area (government) and continue to creatively put into action ideas of the head of state,” Akhmetov, prime minister since June 2003, told his colleagues after announcing his resignation at a cabinet meeting.

Akhmetov, 52, a loyalist of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, looked relaxed and happy during the session, which was videotaped and shown to newsmen. He did not say why he had resigned.

Nazarbayev, who has run Kazakhstan since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet

Union, tolerates little dissent, keeps a tight rein on ministers and often reshuffles senior officials.—Reuters