Trump fires national security chief Bolton

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the firing of hawkish national security advisor John Bolton, a move widely seen as boosting the president´s push to negotiate with US foes in Afghanistan, North Korea and other trouble spots.

Trump, who said he had disagreed "strongly" with Bolton on policy, announced via Twitter: "I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning."

A replacement -- the White House's fourth national security chief in less than three years -- would be named next week, Trump said. Bolton, who had been scheduled to give a press conference at the White House on an unrelated matter, denied being fired and insisted that he had resigned.

The news, coming days after Trump caused uproar by revealing he was canceling secret talks with Afghanistan's Taliban, stunned Washington.

Bolton is a veteran and controversial figure closely linked to the invasion of Iraq and other aggressive US foreign policy decisions. He had been seen as one of the main driving forces in the White House's muscular approach to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and elsewhere. Famous for his large moustache and ever-present yellow legal pad, the hardline former US ambassador to the United Nations had pushed back against Trump's dramatic, though so far stumbling, attempts to negotiate with the Taliban and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

According to US media reports Trump's extraordinary but failed bid to fly Taliban leaders into the presidential retreat at Camp David last weekend sparked a major, final row.