BUSH CABINET Powell to resign, State officials say

He will stay on the job until his successor is in place.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell has told top aides he intends to resign from President Bush's Cabinet, high-ranking State Department officials said today.
Powell, who long has been rumored to stay only a single term with Bush, told his aides that he intends to leave once Bush settles on his successor, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Word of Powell's imminent departure kicked off a new week of Cabinet shuffling for Bush, who is planning his second term.
"I do expect some announcements shortly regarding members of the Cabinet," White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters at the White House early today. "There are a few resignation. I expect four today."
McClellan said he did not expect any announcements today on replacements, however.
The White House was preparing an announcement to confirm Powell's resignation. According to one official, Powell expects that his departure date will be sometime in January. It was not immediately clear whether he will leave before Bush's second inauguration Jan 20.
Most of the speculation on a successor has centered on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Missouri.
Powell's role
Powell has had a controversial tenure in the chief of state's job, reportedly differing on some key issues at various junctures with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Powell, however, has generally had good relations with his counterparts around the world, although his image has been strained by the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Powell, a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, led the Bush administration argument at the United Nations for a military attack to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, arguing a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat that the administration could never buttress.
Powell submitted his letter of resignation to the president Friday. He will go about his usual schedule and will continue at full speed until a successor is named and in place, a senior administration said.
Powell was scheduled to meet later today with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and was to attend a meeting of Asian officials in Chile on Wednesday and a mutinational conference on Iraq next week.
He told some two dozen staff members of his projected departure at the start of the day.