Donald Rumsfeld called for major changes over US tactics in Iraq two days before he resigned as defence secretary, it has been reported.
"In my view it is time for a major adjustment," Mr Rumsfeld wrote in a November 6 memo to the White House, according to a newspaper report.
Details of the classified memo have been revealed by the New York Times, which claims Mr Rumsfeld also said: "Clearly, what US forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough."
Pentagon press secretary Eric Ruff said he is not the source of the leak, but confirmed the memo's authenticity.
"The formulation of these ideas evolved over a period of several weeks," Mr Ruff said.
He said the options presented in the paper are Mr Rumsfeld's personal ideas developed in conversations with a variety of people, not part of a formal Pentagon review that also is under way.
Mr Rumsfeld had previously said publicly that he believed US efforts in Iraq are not working well enough or fast enough, but he had not called for a "major adjustment" in the US approach to stabilising Iraq.
Mr Ruff also emphasised that Mr Rumsfeld did not endorse any one particular recommendation and that he noted in the memo that "many of these options could and, in a number of cases, should be done in combination with others".
US President George Bush is under pressure to decide a new blueprint for US involvement in Iraq.
A bipartisan commission headed by James Baker, a former Republican secretary of state and Bush family friend, is to present its recommendations to Mr Bush in the coming week.
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