WASHINGTON, May 5: CIA chief Porter Goss, assigned to rebuild the US spy agency after huge intelligence lapses over the 9/11 attacks and Iraq, abruptly quit on Friday after less than two years on the job.

President George W. Bush gave no explanation for Mr Goss’ resignation, praising the former member of Congress from Florida for his candid advice.

The announcement was made at a hastily arranged event in the Oval Office attended by Mr Goss and John Negroponte, director of national intelligence.

“Mr Goss’s tenure at the CIA was one of transition. He has helped this agency become integrated into the intelligence community. That was a tough job. He’s led ably,” President Bush said.

The CIA fell under a newly created director of national intelligence as part of reforms enacted after intelligence failures related to the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

Some bureaucratic wrangling has resulted as the new intelligence arm sought to assert itself over the CIA and met some opposition from the veteran spy agency.

“I’m confident that his successor will continue reforms that he’s put in place and as a result, this country will be more secure,” President Bush said.

Mr Goss, brought in after George Tenet resigned in the face of mounting criticism of intelligence failures over the Iraq war, said he would like to report that the CIA was “on a very even keel, it’s sailing well”.

“I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically your goals for our nation’s intelligence capabilities, which are in fact the things that I think are keeping us very safe,” he said.

There was talk among intelligence experts in Washington that Mr Goss had been asked to resign by Negroponte, but no immediate confirmation.

“I’ve never been as concerned about our nation’s security as I am this week,” US Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was quoted by a newspaper as saying last week.—Reuters