US President George W Bush has chosen Condoleezza Rice, his national security advisor, to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state, a senior administration official said in Washington, DC on Monday.

Powell quit on Monday saying it was always his intention to serve only one term.

The White House also announced the resignations of Education Secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Monday.

Rice, 50, will become the first female black secretary of state if she accepts the offer.

Rice, who celebrated her fiftieth birthday during the weekend, is an academic who is perhaps closer to Bush than anyone else in the cabinet.

Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley is expected to replace Rice.

Hadley served as the assistant secretary of defence for international security policy, and was responsible for the defence policy towards the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Western Europe, on nuclear weapons and ballistic missile defence, and arms control.

Both Rice and Hadley held foreign policy posts under Bush's father, former president George Bush.

Taking into account the resignations earlier this month of Don Evans (commerce secretary) and John Ashcroft (attorney general), six of Bush's 15 cabinet members will not be part of his second term.

There is also speculation in the US media about Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld's fate.