U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Friday that she has decided to resign after holding the position for five years in the Bush administration.

In a letter to Bush, Norton said the resignation will be effective by the end of the month.

"Now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb, catch my breath, then set my sights on new goals to achieve in the private sector," she said in the letter.

Norton, who turns 52 on Saturday, said she and her husband " hope to end up closer to the mountains we love in the West."

She got a law degree from the University of Denver in 1978 and once served as the attorney general of her home state of Colorado.

After joining the Bush cabinet in 2001, Norton has been guiding the administration's initiative to open Western government lands to more oil and gas drilling.

She is also one of the architects of Bush's energy policy and has helped to ease regulations to speed approval of drilling permits, particularly in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

Norton gave no particular reason for her resignation but the decision came at a time when her department is involved in a lobbying scandal over Indian gaming licenses.

Source: Xinhua