US defence secretary Robert Gates, a driving force in the Obama administration's Afghan war plan, aims to retire some time next year, he said in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine released today.
"I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012," he was quoted as telling the magazine in an article published on its website.
"This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of an election year," added Mr Gates, who is also in the midst of a major budgetary overhaul of the Pentagon.
He told the magazine that he will have been in his job longer than all but four of his predecessors if he stayed until January, 2011.
Mr Gates, who was also defence secretary for former US president George W Bush, had been expected to leave before the end of President Barack Obama's first term in 2012, which is a presidential election year.
He has spoken of his wish many times to return to his home state of Washington, where he is currently on holidays after a trip to California last week to see US troops.
In a news conference last week, Mr Gates was asked how long he planned to stay in his current job, to which he replied cryptically: "As far as I'm concerned, all I will say is that I'm going to be here longer than either I or others thought."
In December, the Obama administration will review progress in its strategy overhaul for the nine-year war in Afghanistan, which included sending in 30,000 more troops to defeat the Taliban.
In July 2011, the Pentagon is expected to start pulling US troops out of the war zone as long as the right conditions exist for that to happen.