Albanian defense minister resigns over blast

TIRANA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Defense Minister Fatmir Mediu offered his resignation on Monday following the violent explosions over the weekend at an Albanian army depot that has killed 16 people.

"I have handed in my resignation to Prime Minister (Sali Berisha)," Mediu told a press conference. "My resignation is to show that I am a man of responsibility."

Mediu, 41, is the leader of the Republican Party, which is part of Prime Minister Sali Berisha's governing conservative coalition.

The explosions occurred on Saturday when military experts were dismantling old shells at an army depot near Vora, about 15 kilometers west of capital city of Tirana.

The explosions have killed 15 people, injuring nearly another 300. More than 2,000 homes within a 4-kilometer radius of ground zero had been damaged, 318 of them were destroyed and more than 200 others were partly destroyed.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has said that his government would do its utmost to assist those individuals and families affected by the explosions, it was reported.

Albania has some 100,000 tons of old ordnance it inherited from the past. Albania is dismantling those weapons, hoping this might help the poverty-stricken country get the ticket to a NATO membership at the alliance's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest, Romania.