US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not personally sign his name on letters of condolence to families of troops killed in Iraq but instead had it done by a machine, an action lawmakers said on Sunday showed insensitivity and was inappropriate for wartime leadership. 

Rumsfeld acknowledged that he had not signed the letters to family members of more than 1,000 US troops killed in action and in a statement said he would now sign them by hand.

"This issue of the secretary of defense not personally signing the letters is just astounding to me and it does reflect how out of touch they are and how dismissive they are," Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"I have no confidence in Rumsfeld," Hagel added.

Rumsfeld has been under strong fire from Democrats and some Republicans recently for appearing to brush off concerns of soldiers about the lack of protective equipment in Iraq.

Hagel noted that the families of the troops killed in Iraq have received letters signed by Bush.

"My goodness, that is the least we can expect the secretary of defense... If the president can find the time to do that why cannot the secretary of defense?" said Hagel.

Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island said "again it shows a lack of leadership style appropriate for the military... This goes to his capability to continue to serve."

"I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action," Rumsfeld said in a statement on Sunday. "While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter."

Military families told the Stars and Stripes newspaper, which first carried the story, that the machine-signed letters reflected a lack of respect for the losses the families had suffered.

"To me it is an insult, not only as someone who lost a loved one but also as someone who served in Iraq," Army Specialist Ivan Medina whose brother Irving was killed in Iraq this summer, told the newspaper.

(China Daily December 21, 2004)