The ex-wife of the groom at a Kuwait wedding party that turned into tragedy when a fierce fire engulfed a tent has confessed to starting the blaze, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

Al-Qabas said the 23-year-old women had confessed to police that she used petrol to set the packed wedding tent on fire to avenge her ex-husband's "bad treatment" of her before their divorce.

A total of 43 women and children have now perished in the inferno which began on Saturday night in a tent reserved for women at the wedding party in Jahra, west of Kuwait City, said fire chief General Jassem al-Mansuri.

Ninety other people were injured.