Bush urged to fill CIA vacancy

Roberts and Rockefeller were behind the damning report on the CIA (Picture courtesy NBC)

Senior US senators have called on President George W Bush to name a new director of foreign intelligence as quickly as possible.

The previous head of the CIA, George Tenet, left office on Sunday.

Senators John Rockefeller and Pat Roberts said filling the post was an urgent priority because of the threat of a new terror attack on the US.

The two men were behind this week's damning report on the CIA's failures leading up to the Iraq war.

Mr Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said every member of Congress knew there was likely to be an attack on the US between now and the presidential elections in November.

Mr Rockefeller, the Democrat vice-chairman of the committee, said he feared the CIA was not currently in a position to prevent such an attack.

He said the intelligence agency was trying, in difficult circumstances, to change attitudes and practices which dated from the Cold War.

'Taking a chance'

The CIA is currently being overseen by acting director John McLaughlin.

But Mr Rockefeller warned: "You cannot leave in an acting director for six or seven months while you wait for the next [presidential] inauguration, regardless of who is elected. We cannot take that chance."

John Kerry accused Mr Bush of misleading the American people

Mr Roberts told NBC TV's Meet the Press programme that he would push the Senate Intelligence Committee to ratify the president's nominee as soon as possible.

Several possible candidates for the job of CIA director have been named, including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; former Navy Secretary John Lehman; US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss; and former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn.

ABC TV reported White House sources as saying that Mr Bush could name a candidate as soon as this week.

Meanwhile, US Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry has accused Mr Bush of misleading the American people in the run-up to the Iraq war.

In a series of interviews and campaign rallies, Mr Kerry said he and his running mate, John Edwards, would be better at fighting the "war on terror".