"I think Paul's intention is to stay," Lawrence DiRita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.

"He is serving in the job. I think it's a job that the secretary would be very happy if he did stay in. He has been performing magnificently," he said.

Speculation that Wolfowitz was leaving the Pentagon surfaced Friday in a Washington Post column.

Wolfowitz, a hawk who has been identified with the Republican party's neo-conservative wing, has been a prominent proponent of the view that the US-led invasion of Iraq was an opportunity to transform the Middle East by establishing democratic rule in Baghdad.

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