US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday he submitted resignations twice to President George W. Bush during the height of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, but the president refused to accept it.

"He made that decision and said he did want me to stay on," Rumsfeld said in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live."

After the scandal in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison became public, Rumsfeld was blamed for failing to respond quickly to internal investigations over the issue. Some called for his resignation, but Bush offered support for him in public.

The Washington Post reported last May that Bush "privately admonished" Rumsfeld for his handling of the prison abuse scandal. The paper said the president was "not satisfied" and "not happy."

Source: Xinhua