Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq has resigned, the country's ruling military council has announced in a statement on Thursday. A former transport minister, Essam Sharaf, has been asked to form a new government, the statement added. Mr Shafiq was appointed days before President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of office following days of anti-government protests. Protesters saw Mr Shafiq as too closely associated to Mr Mubarak's rule, observers say. It had been one of the protesters' key demands that Mr Shafiq and other top ministers appointed at the end of the Mubarak rule step down.