Washington mulls fate of embattled Rumsfeld

US Senator Chuck Hagel became the latest in a steady stream of leading Republicans to express a lack of confidence in the Pentagon's top civilian official.

"I have no confidence in Rumsfeld," the Nebraska Republ-ican and decorated Vietnam war hero told CBS television, although he stopped short of calling for the defence secretary's resignation, saying US President George W. Bush Bush must make that call.

Hagel called the US military's continued travails "a manifestation of a clear lack of cogent, clear, straight-talking planning in a post-Saddam Iraq," he said.

"We're in there now 21 months. Things are worse than they've ever been," said Hagel.

Rumsfeld has come in for a barrage of fresh criticism after admitting that he had not personally signed Pentagon condolence letters to families of soldiers killed in Iraq. But he has vowed to do so in the future, according to a Washington Post report Sunday.

"I wrote and approved the now more than 1,000 letters sent to family members and next of kin of each of the servicemen and women killed in military action," Rumsfeld said in a statement to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

"While I have not individually signed each one, in the interest of ensuring expeditious contact with grieving family members, I have directed that in the future I sign each letter," the defence chief said, according to the Post.

An outcry ensued after the Stars and Stripes reported in late November that the Pentagon was using a device to stamp Rumsfeld's signature on the letters, and quoted recipients who said they were insulted.

In recent days, several top Republicans, including senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, have recently criticized Rumsfeld, whom Bush has asked to stay on amid a cabinet re-shuffle following his November election victory.

Rumsfeld has drawn fire since seeming to dismiss the concerns of a US soldier at a "town hall" meeting in Kuwait who asked him about the lack of armor for US military vehicles in Iraq.

In widely broadcast and published remarks, Rumsfeld responded: "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

Numerous Democrats in the US legislature also have called on Rumsfeld to step aside, including Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, who told CBS on Sunday: "I believe that the country will be better served by Secretary Rumsfeld's departure."