KUWAIT -- Kuwait closed down the local office of Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera on Sunday for alleged lack of objectivity in its coverage of the Persian Gulf Arab state, a government minister said. "We regret we had to take a decision like this...," Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah told reporters. "The closure decision was not due to a single news item."

"We see a lack of objectivity in the professionalism of presenting the news. We tell them to cover the event as you see it, but do not deal with it in order to serve other issues," the minister said.

He said Jazeera had been given several warnings, without giving details.

Jazeera's office in Kuwait confirmed it was officially notified of the Kuwaiti decision on Sunday, Reuters said.

Qatar-based Jazeera is one of the most popular TV channels in the Arab world. It gained notoriety during the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan by broadcasting videotaped messages from Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda officials, Washington's main suspects in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Sources said Kuwait had been angered by Jazeera's reporting of Kuwait sealing off of about a third of the country on Saturday for U.S.-led military exercises close to the border with Iraq. Many Kuwaitis say Jazeera's reports are biased toward Iraq.

"There is a kind of aggression against Kuwait in the way the news (from Kuwait) is presented...we cannot accept an attack on the state," Sheikh Ahmad said.

Qatar and Kuwait have close ties and are members of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) -- a loose political, economic and military pro-Western alliance which also includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain.

Qatar says Jazeera is a thorn in its side but refuses to curb the channel, citing freedom of expression and its independence from the state although it was started with funds from gas-rich Doha.

"Jazeera harmed Qatar's ties with Saudi, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain...we can not all be wrong and Jazeera right," said an official in a neighboring Persian Gulf Arab state.

PGCC main power Saudi Arabia complained about Jazeera earlier this year. Diplomats said it also withdrew its ambassador from Doha in protest and has threatened to boycott the PGCC's annual summit in Qatar next month or send a low level team.

A PGCC meeting in Muscat last month which agreed on a recommendation to cut Persian Gulf Arab ties with the channel. The recommendation still requires approval by GCC foreign ministers.