Colin Powell 'to Resign'

The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, has reportedly told senior aides today he intends to resign from the cabinet of President George Bush.

Mr Powell said he plans to leave office once Mr Bush has decided on a successor, according to departmental officials quoted by the Associated Press.

He reportedly submitted his letter of resignation to the president on Friday and today told about 20 of his staff of his plan to depart.

He will go about his usual schedule - which continues later today with a meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom - until a successor is named and in place, a senior administration source said.

His resignation was expected to be announced later today. "I do expect some announcements shortly regarding members of the cabinet," the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, told reporters.

Sources said the three other resignations were from Ann Venneman, the agriculture secretary, Rod Paige, the education secretary, and Spencer Abraham, the energy secretary.

It is understood that Mr Powell's departure date will be in early 2005 - but it was not immediately clear whether he will leave before Mr Bush's second inauguration on January 20.

Word of the resignations comes as Mr Bush embarks on a cabinet reshuffle at the start of his second term in the White House. Speculation over possible successors to Mr Powell was centred on the US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, a Republican and former US senator from Missouri.

Mr Powell has had a controversial tenure as head of the state department, reportedly differing on key issues with the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

A former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, he presented the Bush administration's argument at the UN for a military attack to oust the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, based on the perceived threat from weapons of mass destruction.