WASHINGTON, Sept 1: US Republican Senator Larry Craig announced his resignation on Saturday after being caught in an undercover sting allegedly soliciting sex with a man in an airport bathroom.The resignation brought a quick end to the newest sex scandal undermining the conservative Republican Party’s moral stance and threatening to damage its performance in next year’s national elections.

“It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate effective Sept 30,” Craig said at a news conference in Boise, Idaho, the state he represents.

Craig, 62, was arrested June 11 in a men’s bathroom at Minneapolis-St Paul airport by an undercover police officer investigating complaints of homosexual activity. The officer said Craig solicited him for sex.

The veteran lawmaker pleaded guilty on Aug 8, to a misdemeanor misconduct charge, paid more than $500 in fines and fees and received a 10-day suspended sentence.

The incident only surfaced in a Washington newspaper report on Aug 27, leading to a firestorm over morality and hypocrisy in the conservative party and putting pressure on Craig to step down.

Craig, who has represented Idaho on Capitol Hill for 27 years, insisted after the scandal broke that he did nothing wrong and is not gay, and that he pleaded guilty to misconduct in a bid to cover up an embarrassing incident.

Craig did not directly repeat his denial of the allegations on Saturday, but suggested that contesting them would be too much of a distraction from his job while the United States is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I have little control over what people choose to believe, but clearly, my name is important to me, and my family is so very important, also,” he said.

“Having said that, to pursue my legal options, as I continue to serve Idaho, would be an unwanted and unfair distraction of my job and for my Senate colleagues. These are serious times of war and of conflict, times that deserve the senate’s and the full nation’s attention.”

After the resignation, Idaho’s Republican governor, Butch Otter, was expected to name his Lieutenant Governor James Risch to complete Craig’s term, which ends in January 2009. The seat will be up for grabs in the November 2008 elections.

Revelations about the Idaho senator, an opponent of gay marriage, spelt more bad news for a socially conservative party which has paid a heavy price for a skein of sex scandals over the past three years.—AFP