WASHINGTON, Dec 8: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday he has no plans to retire, denying a newspaper report that he is expected to quit early next year.

The New York Daily News said White House officials were telling associates that Mr Rumsfeld, 73, was expected to quit soon.

“Those reports have been flying around since about four months after I assumed my post,” Mr Rumsfeld said after a meeting with members of Congress. “I have no plans to retire.” The denial was unusually blunt for Mr Rumsfeld who brushes off such questions by saying he serves at the pleasure of the president.

The Daily News said Gordon England, the acting deputy secretary of defense, was the top contender to replace Rumsfeld but there was also speculation that the post could go to Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat.

“Senator Lieberman has just returned from Iraq and he has interesting observations. He has been very outspoken about what he has seen and the progress that he sees being made there,” said a Pentagon spokesman.

“The secretary invited him over to hear from him personally the types of things he observed while he was there in Iraq,” he said. —AFP