Syrian prime minister dismissed: state TV

Damascus: Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has been sacked just two months after his appointment, state television reported on Monday.

"Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has been dismissed," the television reported.

The director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in Beirut that Hijab had fled Syria.

President Bashar Al Assad appointed Hijab, a former agriculture minister, as prime minister in June following a parliamentary election in May, which authorities said was a step towards political reform but which opponents dismissed as a sham.