Reports: Top US intelligence official resigns (1st Lead)

May 20, 2010, 22:55 GMT

Washington - Admiral Dennis Blair, the top US intelligence official, has unexpectedly resigned, US broadcasters CNN and ABC reported Thursday.

Blair is the US Director of National Intelligence (DNI), an overarching post created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Blair is tasked with coordinating the country's 16 different intelligence agencies.

There were no immediate reasons for the sudden resignation, according to sources cited by CNN. A formal announcement was expected as soon as Friday, ABC reported.

Blair and the US intelligence community have come under fire after failing to uncover terrorist plots to down a plane headed to Detroit in December and an attempt earlier this month to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square.

Blair is the third person to run the office of DNI and has admitted that coordinating the US intelligence community and getting agencies to share information has been a challenge. Blair has often been at odds with Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon Panetta.

Following a critical report this week by a US Senate committee into the failed Detroit bomb plot, Blair acknowledged that 'institutional and technological barriers remain that prevent seamless sharing of information.'