Bush aide steps down from 'mission impossible'

President George Bush works in mysterious ways.

Two years ago, he appointed one of his most trusted aides, his former communications adviser Karen Hughes, to lead the administration's fight-back against Islamic extremism in an attempt to improve America's image abroad. Although well versed in PR, Ms Hughes speaks only English and a smattering of Spanish.

Now, in a decision just as perplexing, he has allowed her to desert the administration for a second time to return to her native Texas, at a time when she has failed to make any inroads in the predominantly negative perceptions of America abroad, which remain prevalent not only in the Muslim world, but also in Europe.

"You can't expect the polls to go up at a time of war," she says in defence of her decision to leave her job as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy.

She is the latest close Bush aide to announce her resignation, and will follow Karl Rove, the man known as "Bush's Brain," out of the administration, in a blow for the man for whom she has worked since the 1990s.

Ms Hughes is a forthright official who makes no bones about taking the argument to President Bush's detractors. She is, after all, speaking to The Independent which excoriates her boss on an almost daily basis. "It's part of my job," she says, adding: "I even talk to the New York Times."

How does she explain that, according to at least one international opinion poll, Mr Bush is considered as dangerous as Osama bin Laden? "It's very hard," she replies. "First of all, as someone who's known the president for a long time, that's appalling to me. Independant