NEW DELHI, April 21: The US Ambassador to India, Robert D. Blackwill, handpicked for the job by President George Bush from his kitchen cabinet two years ago, said on Monday he would return home shortly to pursue his academic career.

The 64-year old professor and a personal friend of President Bush said in a statement that he was returning to Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government near the end of this summer and had informed the president in January of his intention.

“I will thus join my illustrious colleague, John Kenneth Galbraith, in proudly representing my country for two years as American ambassador to India and then returning to Harvard to teach and to write,” he said in a statement in Delhi adding the relationship between the two countries has a ‘glittering future’.

Mr Blackwill had succeeded Richard Celeste, a political appointee of former president Bill Clinton, in 2001 after Bush took over as US president. Embassy sources said Mr Blackwill would play a full role in the forthcoming peace mission to the region by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage next month.

Analysts said Mr Blackwill’s tenure would be remembered for his handling of the post-9/11 fallout in South Asia, including his hands-on approach to defusing last year’s menacing nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan.

However, he was perceived by some as being too close to the rightwing Hindu nationalist establishment in India to be able play an honest broker between New Delhi and Islamabad.

On the other hand, he had apparently failed to persuade India to support Washington’s most important agenda in the Middle East, analysts said.

Blackwill said that to play a part in advancing the bilateral ties under Bush’s direction has been “my duty, my pleasure and my encompassing strategic conviction.”

Our Washington correspondent adds: The State Department confirmed that US ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, had resigned and was returning to the US.

Although his lengthy 1,100-word statement does not give a precise reason for his resignation, senior South Asian diplomats in Washington told reporters that Ambassador Blackwill was unhappy with the State Department and the White House for not backing aggressively enough his agenda for closer ties with India.

Indian diplomats in Washington said that Mr Blackwill also disagreed with the Bush administration’s decision to improve relations with Pakistan after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.