Luxor’s controversial governor, a member of an Islamist party, said on Sunday he was to quit after his appointment last week triggered an outcry and the resignation of the tourism minister.

Luxor’s controversial governor, a member of an Islamist party, said on Sunday he was to quit after his appointment last week triggered an outcry and the resignation of the tourism minister.

Adel al-Khayat told a news conference broadcast live on television that he had decided "to submit my resignation to Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.”

Khayat is member of the political arm of ex-Islamic militant group Gamaa Islamiya. President Mohammad Mursi on June 16 named Khayat along with 16 other new governors, including seven from his Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The nomination drew widespread criticism in Egypt, where opponents of Mursihave accused him of hijacking the 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak.

The appointment was seen as a blow to the once-lucrative tourism industry which has been struggling to recover after the uprising against Mubarak.

It prompted Tourism Minister Hesham Zazou to tender his own resignation last Wednesday, saying Khayat's nomination was an affront to the tourism industry. Qandil refused to accept the resignation.

Zazou has insisted he would continue to halt work "as long as the new governor remains in his post, greatly harming tourism in Egypt generally and Luxor specifically," the prime minister's spokeswoman, Rasha al-Azaizy, said last week.

Khayat belongs to the Construction and Development party, the political arm of Gamaa Islamiya.