Lithuania's education minister to leave his post

Pavalkis himself told BNS that he would make no comment until his return from a visit to Riga.

Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius said on Sunday that he wanted to hear the Labor Party's reasons before deciding whether or not to accept the minister's resignation.

"I will meet with the education and science minister tomorrow and we will speak. I am also expecting certain information from the Labor Party's leadership, because there is an agreement among the coalition members, that if they propose to dismiss a minister, they have to give the reasons," he told BNS.

The Labor Party's council made the decision to propose Pavalkis' dismissal after a working group set up to assess the performance of persons delegated to high-ranking political posts by the party had presented its findings, the party's Information Center in Kedainiai, in central Lithuania, told reporters.

Pavalkis, who has drawn criticism from Viktor Uspaskich, the Labor Party's founder, has earlier linked this to the party's failure in the recent municipal local elections.

Uspaskich has said that the working group's findings might determine the political career of some officials. He said that he had words of criticism for all of the Labor Party's ministers, except Agriculture Minister Virginija Baltraitiene.

Other ministers delegated by the Labor Party are Energy Minister Rokas Masiulis, who is not a member of the party, Culture Minister Sarunas Birutis and Social Security and Labor Minister Algimanta Pabedinskiene.