United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will step down, President George W Bush is likely to announce on Wednesday.
Updated at 11.40 pm
WASHINGTON, DC: United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down, President George W Bush announced on Wednesday.
Former Central Intelligence Agency chief Robert Gates will succeed Rumsfeld.
The face of US war policy and a lightning rod for critics worldwide, will step down, a US defense official had said earlier.
The announcement by Bush follows dramatic victories by Democrats in Tuesday elections fueled by public anger over the Iraq war in which Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and were close to taking the Senate.
Rumsfeld stayed out of sight after the massive Republican defeat.
Eric Ruff, the Pentagon press secretary, said he did not know whether Bush had spoken to Rumsfeld in the wake of Tuesday's elections returns to discuss his future.
"We're hard at work," Ruff had told reporters. "We're still at war."
Democratic leaders, celebrating their recapture of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate for the first time in 12 years, called for a new direction in Iraq.
Exit polls showed that voter disenchantment with Iraq was a key factor in the election results, and calls for Rumsfeld's resignation mounted during the campaign.
Ruff, who said he had been in two meetings Wednesday morning with the defense secretary, said Rumsfeld had given no indication he was thinking of stepping down.
Rumsfeld "hit the ground running" Wednesday morning with a full schedule of meetings that included a teleconference with General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq.
The secretary did not discuss the implications of the elections with Casey, Ruff said.
"This was all operational discussions," he said.
Rumsfeld is to make a speech at Kansas State University on Thursday, his first scheduled public appearance since the elections.
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