US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has also resigned, department spokesman Richard Boucher has said.

"Deputy Secretary Armitage has submitted his letter of resignation to be effective along with the secretary's when the new secretary of state is confirmed," Boucher said on Tuesday.

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Asked

as to whether there would be other resignations, Boucher said he did not know. "There has not been a general request for everybody to write a letter of resignation."

"People, I suppose, are making their own individual plans, and as those are fit to announce, we will try to make them available to you. But at this point, I have not done a general census of where people stand or gone through the phone book," he said.