German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new government has been rocked by its first political crisis after a minister abruptly resigned over claims he leaked confidential information about an international child porn probe.
Just two months after forming a left-right "grand coalition", Merkel must replace her agriculture minister Hans-Peter Friedrich after he became engulfed in the rapidly widening scandal.
Friedrich, interior minister until December, had come under intense pressure for tipping off the party chief of a prominent MP that the politician was under investigation in the Canadian-led probe.
The leak, which dates back to October, was reportedly aimed at preventing the MP from being included in a new government during negotiations to form a new coalition.
"I offered Chancellor Angela Merkel my resignation today from my post as federal agriculture minister," Friedrich said in a televised statement.
He reiterated earlier remarks that he believed he had "acted politically and legally correctly".
"But I will also say that the pressure on me has grown so much in the last few hours that the duties ... in the agriculture ministry can no longer be handled with the necessary concentration, calm and political support," he said.
Merkel, still on crutches after a Christmas skiing accident, followed him in front of the TV cameras to announce that she had accepted his resignation "with great respect and great regret".
"With this move, Hans-Peter Friedrich is proving once again his upstanding demeanour," she said in a brief statement, adding that regardless of the legal assessment, he had assumed "political responsibility".
