US President George W Bush escorts Donald Rumsfeld out of the Oval Office after the defence secretary resigned. [Photo: Reuters]

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                Democrats Sweep toward Control of Congress

United States and Iraqi lawmakers have welcomed the resignation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

US President George W Bush announced the resignation of Mr Rumsfeld, following the Democratic victories in legislative elections.

The Democrats surged to power in Congress after voter backlash over the Iraq war.

"Secretary Rumsfeld's war plans in Iraq have failed. The country is on a dangerous course, and the administration has finally recognised the need for drastic, immediate change," Senator John Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said.

"The next secretary of defence will play a critical role in changing the course in Iraq, but will also have an enormous responsibility in addressing the global war on terror.

"Democrats stand ready to work with this Administration and its new leadership to begin to chart the right course."

Democratic Representative Ed Markey, a liberal Massachusetts lawmaker and critic of the Bush administration's policy on the war, lamented the fact that Rumsfeld's departure would deprive Democrats of the chance to hold him to account with their increased power in the House of Representatives and Senate.

"Secretary Rumsfeld is exhibit A of the President's failed Iraq policy," he said.

"It now appears that he has decided to 'cut and run' instead of facing a new Congress to whom the administration must answer on what went wrong in Iraq and how we can now change direction."

Iraqi lawmakers have also welcomed Mr Rumsfeld's resignation, saying they held him responsible for many of the war-torn country's ongoing woes.

"The resignation came late," Shiite politician Mahmud Othman said.

"He should have made it right after the scandal of Abu Ghraib in the Spring of 2004.

"He should have been held responsible back then because he was the number one man in charge of Iraq and it might have been better if he'd handed in his resignation earlier."

For nationalist Sunni Arab politician Saleh al-Mutlak, a vocal opponent of the US-led invasion, the resignation represents an "awakening of the American conscience".

"Everything that Rumsfeld and his rule did in Iraq was against ethics and against humanitarian attitudes, and it does not reflect the policies of a civilised country like the United States," he said.

Mr Mutlak laid much of the chaos currently engulfing Iraq at Mr Rumsfeld's feet.

New direction

US President George W Bush has conceded voter discontent with his Iraq policy helped fuel his party's election defeat and agreed on the need for a "fresh perspective".

But even as he announced the resignation of Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Bush otherwise gave little ground to victorious congressional Democrats demanding a change of course in Iraq.

Mr Bush says he is ready for new dialogue with Democratic leaders on Iraq and expects to meet early next week with a bipartisan commission for recommendations on the way forward.

Promising to lend a close ear to Democrats' concerns, Mr Bush said his choice of former CIA director Robert Gates as defence secretary would offer new leadership of the war effort.

Calling it a "critical period in this war", he said, "sometimes it's necessary to have a fresh perspective".

While acknowledging Iraq policy was "not working well enough, fast enough," Mr Bush insisted there would be no sudden US withdrawal and stuck to his refusal to set a pull-out timetable.

"The enemy is going to say, 'well, it must mean America is going to leave,'" he said.

"And the answer is 'no.'

"I recognise that many Americans voted last night to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made there."

The outcome of the election was widely seen as a repudiation by voters of Mr Bush's war strategy.

Mr Bush was quick to insist, however, that Democrats themselves remained divided on their approach to Iraq and said they would now have to "make up their minds".

"I can understand Americans saying, 'come home', but I don't know if they said, 'come home and leave behind an Iraq that could end up being a safe haven for Al Qaeda'," Mr Bush said.

"I don't believe they said that, and so I'm committed to victory, I'm committed to helping this country so that we can come home."