CIA chief quits as Bush continues his shake-up

President George Bush did not immediately name a successor. "He has led ably," Mr Bush said. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives." Mr Bush said that Mr Goss, a Republican former member of Congress, had "helped make this country a safer place".

Mr Goss responded: "I would like to report to you that the agency [CIA] is back on a very even keel and sailing well."

The CIA has come in for harsh criticism in recent years, not only for questionable pre-war intelligence on Iraq but also in connection with the failure of it and a host of other federal agencies to co-ordinate information closely about the terrorist threat. Questions about the CIA's performance over Iraq involved mostly George Tenet, Mr Goss's predecessor.

Last autumn, Mr Goss defended his agency's record and insisted "we know more than we're able to say publicly" about the al-Qa'ida leaders Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. They have not been found "primarily because they don't want us to find them and they're going to great lengths to make sure we don't find them," Mr Goss said. "We're applying a lot of efforts to find out where they are."

The realignment of Mr Bush's team amid the President's sagging poll standings started with the resignation of Andrew Card as chief of staff and his replacement by Joshua Bolten, who had been the budget director. AP

* The United Nations grilled the US on its compliance with the global ban on torture yesterday, rejecting the White House's refusal to discuss what it says are classified intelligence matters. A US delegation in Geneva described claims of abuse of terrorism suspects in Europe as so exaggerated as to be "absurd", and that the US was "absolutely committed to uphold its national and international obligations to eradicate torture". US officials acknowledged that 29 detainees in American facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan had died of what appeared to be suspected abuse or other violations of US law.(AP)