BAGHDAD - Iraq's electricity minister resigned following demonstrations by angry Iraqis over the continuation of power cuts more than seven years after toppling former President Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led invasion, official Iraqi television reported on Monday.

"I have submitted my resignation from my post to the government because I don't want to be part of the current political crisis," Karim Waheed said in a statement on the state-run television of Iraqia.

Waheed said the crisis has been politicized by parties, which he did not name, in a critical stage of the political process and during rise of temperature in the hot summer of Iraq.

"The politicization has effectively contributed to sophisticating the solution of electricity problem, therefore I announce with courage my resignation from my post as the minister of electricity," Waheed said.

Two demonstrations broke out within three days in Iraq's southern city of Nasiriya and Basra. In both incidents, hundreds of angry Iraqis clashed with Iraqi riot police, leaving two people killed and 20 others wounded, according to the local police source.

The demonstrators in both cities chanted slogans criticizing the central and local governments for failing to stop the continuing power cut in the temperature that often exceeds 50 degrees Celsius in the hot summer of Iraq.