US Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans have resigned from the Cabinet of President George W. Bush in the first post-election changes, the White House announced Tuesday.

"The president accepted their resignations," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said as he released the letters by the two Cabinet members.

"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved," Ashcroft wrote in his hand-written letter to Bush. "I believe that my energies and talents should be directed toward other challenging horizons," he said.

Evans said in his letter: "I have concluded with deep regret that it is time for me to return home."

For months, Ashcroft's associates have said that he was preparing to step aside, weary after waging an aggressive campaign against terrorism. They said he longed for a quieter life, especially after his gallbladder surgery in March.

Evans, a close friend of Bush, was instrumental in the president's 2000 campaign and came with him to Washington.

At his first news conference after the re-election Thursday, Bush said changes in the Cabinet before his second term would be inevitable. He spent the weekend in Camp David considering personnel changes.

As more cabinet members are expected to resign, the most intense speculation centers on the decisions by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld on Monday brushed aside a question over whether he intends to remain in the new Cabinet, saying he had not discussed the matter with the president.

Rumsfeld aides have said that the defense secretary had an interest in staying in the job to complete some of the changes he initiated like the troops deployment or to clean up the mess in Iraq, according to local media reports.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday called reports on the possible resignation of Powell "a pile of crap." Powell has himself told friends he might stay for a few months or well into next year.