Estonian Prime Minister Juhan Parts has asked the country's president to dismiss Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland over the disappearance of nearly 100 confidential documents, the government's press office said Tuesday. "The prime minister has presented his proposal to the president," government spokeswoman Kristi Liiva told AFP. President Arnold Ruutel now has up to three days to rule on the request.
Ojuland, 38 and a member of the Reform Party - one of the three in the ruling coalition -, had been appointed to the post in January 2002.
Monday, the security service said the foreign ministry had one month to hand over the nearly 100 secret government documents which an audit showed to be missing, or face legal action.
"If the foreign ministry does not produce the missing confidential documents for inspection in one month's time, the security police and the prosecutor's office will decide whether to launch civil or criminal proceedings," the security service said.
The missing documents, the nature of which was not disclosed, date from 1996 to 2004, the security police said.
The opposition has stepped up calls for the foreign minister to resign over the affair.