WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush retains “full confidence” in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, despite accusations that he botched the Iraq war and a disclosure that a former top Bush aide had recommended his replacement, the White House said on Sunday.

White House counselor Dan Bartlett also said Condoleezza Rice, who served as Bush’s national security adviser before becoming secretary of state, had urged a complete change of Bush’s national security team after his 2004 re-election.

This was in addition to efforts by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to replace Rumsfeld, reported in a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward on Bush’s handling of the war.

“The president has full confidence in Secretary Rumsfeld,” Bartlett told ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Rumsfeld was doing an “enormously difficult job,” he added.

Bartlett also denied Bush was misleading the America public about the level of violence against U.S. troops in Iraq, a central charge in a Woodward’s book “State of Denial.”

Rumsfeld, who critics say failed to adequately plan for the war or provide enough troops, remains the right person to lead it, Bartlett said. “We recognize that he has his critics, we recognize that he’s made some very difficult decisions. Some people don’t like his bedside manner,” Bartlett said.

“What President Bush looks to in Secretary Rumsfeld is to bring him the type of information he needs to make the right decisions in this war,” Bartlett said.

Disputing Woodward assertion that Card tried to fire Rumsfeld, Bartlett said Card merely presented options to Bush on changing his cabinet. Speaking on CNN’s Late Edition, he also said Rice “suggested to the president maybe he ought to bring in a whole new national security team starting the second term.”

Source: Reuters