Afghan interior minister ready to resign

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali is set to resign, the president's office confirms Tuesday.

Interior Ministry officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said Jalali was due to address a news conference on Wednesday to give his reasons for stepping down.

"I can confirm his intention to resign," Khaleeq Ahmed, deputy spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, told.

Ahmed said Jalali was resigning for "personal reasons" to pursue an academic career.

Jalali, who has been interior minister since 2002, has recently expressed dissatisfaction over the alleged involvement of government officials in Afghanistan's booming drugs trade, the AP reports.