Kuwaiti crown prince delays visit to Washington

Kuwaiti Crown Prince Saad al-Abdallah al-Salim al-Sabah delayed a visit he will pay to Washington at the invitation of US Vice President Al Gore until after the end of the coming Ramadan.

The visit was originally set for the beginning of November.

Kuwaiti sources related this delay to recent rumors about a coming change in the government, although those rumors were denied by ministerial sources.

The delay may also be related to a confrontation with the state's council (the parliament) concerning local issues, especially economic reforms. The council will resume its meetings today to consider economic reform.

Kuwait has said that it is facing severe economic difficulties in its budget as a result of the income loss from low oil prices, and that Kuwait needed a reform plan to cover the 1.1919 billion dinars in budget deficit.

"The decrease in the county's revenues due to the drop in oil prices makes economic reform the most pressing issue and poses crucial challenges that citizens and the state should cooperate to face," said crown prince and prime Minister Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah al-Sabah on Friday as he addressed the country's supreme planning council in a speech carried by the official Kuwait News agency.