Gen Michael Hayden, new CIA Chief

WASHINGTON, May 8: US President George W Bush will name deputy national intelligence director Gen Michael Hayden as the new CIA chief today, setting up a battle with Congress over his credentials to lead the spy agency.

National security adviser Stephen Hadley, appearing on morning talk shows, confirmed what had become the worst kept secret in Washington after CIA chief Porter Goss was eased out of his job on Friday after less than two years.

A number of lawmakers, including some from Bush's Republican party, have voiced concern about Hayden being a general with close ties to the military and his role in an eavesdropping program assailed by critics as a violation of civil rights.

''It sends the wrong signal,'' Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican who heads the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told CNN. ''I'm not sure he can adapt.'' The White House said the nominee would be announced officially at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). Bush is pursuing a shake-up of his staff in an attempt to present a new face for his team and rebound from sagging poll numbers.

The CIA lost clout when it fell under a newly created director of national intelligence as part of reforms in response to intelligence failures over the September+ 11 attacks.

Tensions between national intelligence director John Negroponte and Goss grew as the new intelligence arm sought to assert itself over the CIA and met opposition from the spy agency, administration officials have said.

Hayden, an Air Force general, must be approved by the Senate so Hoekstra will have no say in the final vote. But as intelligence chairman his opinion has impact and several senators yesterday expressed similar doubts about Hayden's background.

''THE RIGHT MAN''

Hadley said there was no reason for Hayden to resign his military commission, pointing out that several military men had led the CIA in the past.

''General Hayden is the president's nominee to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the president strongly believes he's the best man for the job,'' Hadley told CNN.

Countering Hoekstra's complaint that Hayden was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time, Hadley said on NBC's ''Today'' show, ''He is the right man for the CIA at this time.'' Senators have said they would use Hayden's Senate confirmation hearings to learn more about the program of warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' international phone calls and e-mail in pursuit of terrorism suspects.

Bush defends it as essential to fighting terrorism.

Some Congress members have said a general heading the CIA could give the Pentagon too much sway over US intelligence gathering.

Others have said he is too close to the White House and lacks experience building a clandestine service.

The CIA is in charge of gathering human intelligence and Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency, has most of his background in technological intelligence gathering.

As head of the NSA, he was in charge of eavesdropping operations. Bush has said Hayden was the one who proposed the domestic eavesdropping program after the September 11 attacks.

REUTERS