Manama, Feb 25 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The popular unrest in Arab countries that led to the fall of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt is part of a US-designed strategic project dubbed "New Middle East", a Bahraini deputy said Thursday.

The term "New Middle East" was introduced in 2006 by then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Analysts say the project defines Washington's policy on a vast territory including the Arab countries and Central Asian states.

"These riots and revolutions we are observing today in Arab countries are the implementation of the global US project entitled 'New Middle East'. This programme started with Iraq, followed by Lebanon," Bahraini deputy Samira Rajab told RIA Novosti.

"A new stage of its implementation that will take at least a decade started from 2011," she said, adding that the US strategy in the region is aimed at weakening the ruling regimes and introducing opposition groups into their governments.

A wave of unrest, which has already toppled authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, is sweeping through the Arab world, stoking mass popular uprisings in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen.