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 newspaper reported today.

said the 23-year-old women had confessed to police that she used petrol to torch the packed wedding tent to avenge her former husband's "bad treatment" of her before their divorce.

The burnt debris after the wedding tent blaze on Saturday night. Credit:AP

There was no immediate official confirmation of the report.

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