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US President George W. Bush announced on Wednesday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was stepping down, and would be replaced by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Robert Gates.

Bush made the announcement a day after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in the legislative elections and were just one seat short of capturing control of the Senate, in which the party has been in the minority since 2002.

Meanwhile, latest US media reports say that the Democrats have also captured both chambers of Congress, after Democratic candidate James Webb defeated his Republican opponent, incumbent George Allen, in the crucial Senate race in Virginia.

Webb's victory over Allen brought the number of Democrat seats in the 100-member Senate to 51, enabling the party to take control of the Senate for the first time since 2002, according to the Associated Press.

The Democrats have already won 229 seats in the 435-member House, against 196 seats for Republicans, retaking control of the House for the first time in 12 years. Several seats were still undecided as of Wednesday night.

The elections to a large extent were viewed as a national referendum on Bush and the war in Iraq, according to The New York Times citing exit polls.

Sixty percent of voters leaving the polls said they opposed the war in Iraq, and 40 percent said their vote was a vote against Bush, the report said.

Rumsfeld, 74, has been under intense pressure from both the Democrats and Republicans to resign over his handling of the Iraq war already in its fourth year and which has claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 US soldiers. Rumsfeld has the honor of being the oldest to serve as defense secretary as well as the youngest defense chief when he was appointed by former President Gerald Ford in 1975.

At a White House press conference, Bush acknowledged that the administration's handling of the Iraq war played a major role in the Democrats victory.

Just a week ago, Bush indicated that he wanted Vice President Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld to stay in office during the rest of his presidency.

Incoming defense secretary Robert Gates, who was born in September 1943, served in the CIA and the National Security Council for 26 years. He served as CIA director from 1991 to 1993, and later as president of Texas A&M University.

Bush said he met with Gates on Sunday to discuss the appointment, even before the elections were held. "He is a steady, solid leader who can help make the necessary adjustments in our approach to meet our current challenges," Bush said.

Gates also served in the bipartisan panel Iraq Study Group, headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III, a Republican, and former Indiana congressman Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat. The group is to make recommendations on the government's Iraq policy possibly by early January 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)