A Bush administration official confirmed (off the record) on Wednesday night that National Intelligence Director John Negroponte “will resign his position overseeing the nation’s 16 spy agencies to become the deputy secretary of State.”

A senior State Department official said the announcement could come as early as this week. The official, and other administration officials who confirmed the appointment, spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement will come from President Bush.

Negroponte’s move comes as Bush finalizes a new course for the war in Iraq.

Negroponte was the first to head the “newly created Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2005,” that Bush “had at first been reluctant to set up. Bush “ultimately bowed to Congressional pressure and made the office a cabinet-level position.”

The N.Y. Times reports that the Bush administration has had “great difficulty filling the State Department position.” No one seems to want the job…

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked several people who have turned down the post, according to senior State Department officials.

But administration officials interviewed on Wednesday would not say whether Mr. Negroponte was moving because the White House saw him as uniquely qualified for the diplomatic post, or because President Bush was dissatisfied with his performance as intelligence chief, or whether it was a combination of the two.

Bush administration officials also reported that “the leading candidate to become the new intelligence chief is J. Michael McConnell, a retired vice admiral who led the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996.”

Admiral McConnell was head of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Gen. Colin L. Powell during the first Persian Gulf war, in 1991.

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