WASHINGTON, June 19: US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said on Monday he will quit the Bush administration in July to join financial services firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“I’ve accomplished what I’ve set out to do, and it’s time for me to step down,” Mr Zoellick said at the State Department, noting the he has served for some six years under President George W. Bush, first as US trade representative and then in the current post.

With Mr Zoellick at her side, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said her outgoing deputy was a masterful strategist and an intellectual leader who had made America stronger and safer. She did not announce a replacement for Mr Zoellick.

In his resignation letter, dated June 15, Mr Zoellick, 52, also did not say why he was leaving. US media, however, reported that Mr Zoellick decided to leave because his wish to become Treasury secretary was not realized. Mr Zoellick, who moved to the State Department in February 2005, had been tipped as a candidate to take over as treasury secretary but President Bush nominated Goldman Sachs executive Henry Paulson instead.

Mr Zoellick had replaced Richard Armitage, who left the administration along with then Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Referring to his contributions in dealing with such issues as checking Iran’s nuclear ambitions, launching regular high-level dialogue with China, forging a new partnership with India, Ms Rice said his outgoing deputy “would get his courage and roll up his sleeves and occasionally even hug a panda.”

Mr Zoellick has focused his Asia diplomacy on China, concluding negotiations with Beijing on its accession to the World Trade Organization during his tenure as the trade chief from 2001 and leading the US side in the wide-ranging regular high-level dialogue as the deputy secretary of state.