WASHINGTON, Aug 4: US Secretary of State Colin Powell does not intend to stay on if President George W. Bush wins a second term next year, informed sources said on Monday, as the State Department denied he had already told the White House of his plans.

The department flatly contradicted a Washington Post report that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had been informed of Powell’s decision but remained silent on what the secretary might do if Mr Bush is reelected in 2004.

“There is no basis for the story,” deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said.

His denial, though, was limited the Post’s assertion that Powell’s deputy, Richard Armitage, had recently told Ms Rice that he and Mr Powell would both be leaving their posts even if Bush won next November’s election.

“There was no conversation between the deputy secretary and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice concerning any plans for ‘stepping down’,” Mr Reeker said in a statement.

“As Secretary Powell has always said, he and Deputy Secretary Armitage serve at the pleasure of the president, and will continue to do so,” he said.

However, sources close to Mr Powell said it was indeed the case that he planned on following the example of his recent predecessors and serve for only one term.

“I don’t think it’s any secret the secretary intends to leave,” one source said on condition of anonymity. “He made that quite clear when he took the job in the first place.”

Mr Powell is known to have promised his wife, Alma, that he would serve only four years as secretary of state unless absolutely extraordinary circumstances forced him to stay on.

“This is a difficult job that can really grind a person down,” a second source said. “Two-term secretaries are rare and he (Powell) has made it known he isn’t that rare.”

In fact, since the dawn of the jet age, which added gruelling international travel element to the requirements of the job, only one secretary of state has served through two full consecutive presidential terms: Dean Rusk.

Mr Rusk was appointed by president John F. Kennedy in 1961 and remained on the job until 1969 — staying on after Kennedy’s assassination to serve as president Lyndon Johnson’s top diplomat.

Although they would not outright deny that Mr Powell would leave office even if Mr Bush won reelection, senior State Department officials were quick to heap scorn on the Post report, which was published on the front page.—AFP