WASHINGTON, March 28: The State Department received a resignation letter on Friday from another US diplomat who decided to quit in protest over the Bush administration’s decision to wage a war in Iraq.

In her letter, Ann Wright, the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Mongolia, also mentioned “unnecessary curtailment of civil rights in the United States after the 9-11 terrorist attacks” as one of the reasons for her resignation.

“I believe the administration’s policies are making the world a more dangerous, not a safer, place,” said the resignation letter addressed to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Ms Wright, 56, is the second American diplomat to resign in protest over policy towards Iraq. John Brady Kiesling, a political counsellor at the US Embassy in Athens, stepped down on March 7.

In her letter, Ms Wright said by taking military action without the UN Security Council backing, the United States could trigger a backlash in the Arab world.

“This pre-emptive attack policy will ... provide justification for individuals and groups to attack America and American citizens,” the letter says.

She also cited what she called the Bush administration’s “lack of effort” in trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its lack of contacts with North Korea amid tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.