Bush's US image adviser resigns

The woman in charge of improving the image of the US around the world has announced she will resign.

Karen Hughes, the head of public diplomacy for the US state department, said she will return to Texas after quitting her post in mid-December.

Hughes, who was sworn in as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy in September 2005, had sought to combat negative opinions about the US following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and its chaotic aftermath.

Hughes said: "I feel that I have done what Secretary Rice and President Bush asked of me by transforming public diplomacy and making it a national security priority."

Hughes had been close to Bush since before he entered politics by running for governor of Texas in 1994. Al Jazeera.net