WASHINGTON, Jan 5: US President George W. Bush is reshuffling his military, diplomatic and intelligence teams days before the expected announcement of a new strategy for Iraq.

In a Friday morning briefing at the White House, Mr Bush confirmed that he has asked John Negroponte, America’s first overall intelligence chief, to join the State Department as Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s deputy.

The move is seen as a demotion for Mr Negroponte who, as national intelligence director, enjoyed the same status as that of a Cabinet member.

Mr Bush also announced that he has nominated Vice-Admiral John McConnell, a former National Security Adviser, to replace Mr Negroponte as the intelligence chief. Admiral McConnell has almost 40 years of experience of US intelligence work.

First commissioned as an intelligence officer in the Navy in 1967, Mr McConnell served in Vietnam, Japan and the Middle East before becoming the top military intelligence adviser to the Defence Secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff during the collapse of communism.

Mr Bush urged Congress, which came under Democratic control on Thursday for the first time since 1994, to approve the appointments “as quickly as possible”.

Friday’s nominations are expected to be first of a series of reshuffles that will replace America’s top two generals in Iraq and Ambassador to the UN.

Mr Bush is expected to nominate Admiral William Fallon, the commander of US forces in the Pacific, to replace General John Abizaid, the head of US Central Command, who has overall authority over the American missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lieutenant General David Petraeus, who has been training the Iraqi army, is expected to take over from General George Casey, currently in charge of US forces there. Another possible nomination will be that of Zalmay Khalilzad, the current US ambassador to Iraq, to become the next ambassador to the UN, with Ryan Crocker, the ambassador to Pakistan, taking his place in Baghdad.

President Bush is also expected to announce a temporary deployment of 20,000 to 40,000 extra American troops in Iraq next week.

Mr Bush told a briefing at the White House on Thursday that he will announce his decision next week about how to proceed with the nearly four-year-old Iraq war, including whether to bolster existing forces with more troops.