NEW YORK, Dec 3: A couple of days before he resigned, former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld called for a major shift in American policy in Iraq, saying that the present course was not working, according to a classified memo obtained by the New York Times.

According to a report published on Sunday, Mr Rumsfeld offered several options for reducing troop presence in Iraq, including some that were similar to proposals by Democratic critics of the war that have been sharply opposed by the Bush administration.

He suggested one potentially controversial plan of action that had been used in a different form by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein -- “paying off key political and religious leaders” so that they would be more compliant with occupying forces, the newspaper said.

“In my view it is time for a major adjustment,” Mr Rumsfeld wrote in the Nov 6 memo. “Clearly, what United States forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough.”

Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq was not working and it called for a major course correction, he said.

Before his resignation, Mr Rumsfeld had frequently said that the overall course of action in Iraq was working, even if it needed adjustments.

While he has said he based his decisions on input from commanders, his memo is peppered with proposals that run counter to the advice of officers, most of whom have opposed redeployments or withdrawals.

Critics immediately seized on the memo as an admission of failure by one of the administration's primary architects of the Iraq war and its aftermath.

"This is an unbelievable memo. It is an admission of failure. It is more frank than anything that any official has said publicly in the three years of the war," Joseph Cirincione, senior vice-president for national security at the Center for American Progress told a newspaper.

In the memo, Mr Rumsfeld describes a "range of options" for the White House to consider. Many of them involved sharply drawing down US troop presence in Iraq by mid-2007.

"Recast the US military mission and the US goals, go minimalist," Mr Rumsfeld suggested.

He proposed an accelerated shuttering or consolidation of most US military bases in Iraq.

"We have already reduced from 110 to 55 bases," he wrote. "Plan to get down to 10 to 15 bases by April 2007, and to five bases by July 2007."

Reuters adds: President George W. Bush is considering a “laundry list” of options for Iraq policy changes suggested by Mr Rumsfeld before resigning last month, a senior White House official said on Sunday.