Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt announced the resignation of Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors on Thursday.

"I have today, on Mr. Tolgfors' request, decided to dismiss him," said Reinfeldt at a joint press conference with Tolgfors.

The prime minister said they had talked about changing the defense minister post as early as last fall.

"Tolgfors has been responsible for changing all that in defense that has been criticized ... Tolgfors deserves recognition," said Reinfeldt.

Reinfeldt also announced that the mandate to temporarily replace Tolgfors as head of the Department of Defense went to Minister for Infrastructure Catharina Elmsater-Svard from the Ministry of Enterprise and Energy.

At the press conference, Tolgfors said he had decided to quit last week. The job of defense minister was tough and his resignation was due to personal reasons, he added.

"Time takes its roll, I felt that I lost energy and joy, as required to accomplish this job," said Tolgfors.

Tolgfors decided to resign after an intense debate on his involvement in arms deals with Saudi Arabia. It was revealed that Swedish authorities and companies had advanced plans to assist the Saudis to build a weapons factory, according to the Swedish Daily DN.

The debate did not trigger Tolgfors' resignation but possibly accelerated this process, said Reinfeldt.

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