Brasilia, Oct 27 (IANS/EFE): Brazil's sports minister resigned Wednesday after being assailed by corruption complaints that cost him the confidence of President Dilma Rousseff, officials said.

Orlando Silva is the fifth member of the cabinet Rousseff has lost since taking office Jan 1. His resignation was confirmed to reporters by the president's chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho.

"Orlando understood that the situation was unsustainable," said Carvalho, who added that a "determining factor" was the decision by the Supreme Court to investigate Silva after complaints were made that he demanded kickbacks from organizations receiving government grants.

Rousseff had expressed her support for the minister in his post last Friday, but over the weekend new complaints about his alleged actions emerged.

The resignation was decided upon in a meeting called Wednesday by leaders of Silva's Communist party and Carvalho.

The complaints that led to Silva's resignation came from Joao Dias Ferreira, a former police officer who headed a martial arts foundation that received money from the sports ministry through the programme that subsidises organisations dedicated to serving low-income youth.

Ferreira, arrested last year on charges he embezzled money from the ministry programme, complained that to get access to sports ministry resources he was obligated to pay commissions to Silva or his aides.

Although the former policeman did not present any evidence against Silva, his complaint caused a political tremor as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Silva denied the accusations and appeared three times before Congress to provide explanations, but it was not enough to head off the precipitous erosion of Rousseff's support for him.

He became sports minister five years ago during the 2003-11 tenure of president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.