Egypt’s Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, who was hospitalised overnight for exhaustion, will spend the day resting and then finalise a new Cabinet, the government said yesterday.

The new ministers were meant to be sworn in on Monday, but the ceremony was postponed for a day amid protests over the embattled premier’s choice of ministers.

Then Mr Sharaf, 59, was briefly admitted to hospital on Monday night suffering from exhaustion.

Mr Sharaf “is resting today on the advice of doctors after medical examinations following his illness last night, which was the result of hard work,” a cabinet statement said.

Mr Sharaf was “in stable condition and he will resume consultations to finalise the new ministerial changes after that,” the statement said, denying “rumours on some websites about Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s resignation.”

A Cabinet source said the premier would return to work today and “finalise the Cabinet tomorrow or the day after.”

The Cabinet said on its Facebook page that Mr Sharaf asked the current ministers to continue working until the new cabinet was sworn in. Mr Sharaf, who heads a caretaker government after a popular revolt toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak in February, had hoped the sweeping reshuffle would persuade protesters to end a sit-in at Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Fourteen new ministers and a deputy premier had been expected to take the oath of office before Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the ruling military council.

But the protesters complained that the new Cabinet retains ministers they wanted sacked, including Justice Minister Abdel Aziz al-Gindi, whom they accuse of delaying trials of former regime officials, including Mr Mubarak.