File photo taken August 28, 2005 shows Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali delivers a speech in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ali Ahmad Jalali submitted his resignation to President Hamid Karzai September 27, 2005. (Xinhua photo)

KABUL, Sept. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Afghanistan's Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali is going to resign, a section of local media reported Tuesday.

    "I have decided to follow my academic job outside the country,"a private television channel, Tolo TV quoted the Interior Minister as saying.

    However, Presidential spokesman Mohammad Karim Rahimi declined to confirm or reject the report by saying, "This is the right of every one to work with an institution or quit it."

    In the meantime, a reliable source on the condition of anonymity told Xinhua that the Interior Minister submitted his resignation to president Tuesday morning.

    Jalali, a strongman man with dual nationality in the President Hamid Karzai cabinet is the first minister quitting his post.

    A former army officer and a resident of the United States, Jalali who served as director of Dari-Pashtu service of Voice of America (VOA) radio before joining Afghan government, according to some sources, wants to retain his former post at VOA in Washington.

    Meantime, unofficial Afghan sources blamed internal differences with President Karzai over appointment of provincial governors andcertain officials involvement in drug trafficking for Jalali's resignation.

    The Interior Minister has accused a number of high officials ofinvolvement in the smuggling of narcotics and frequently warned todisclose their names if they continue the black business but has yet to name any.

    However, the Interior Minister rejected the notion as baseless and saying he prefers to do his academic job. Enditem