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resident Bush on Monday selected Environmental Protection Agency chief Michael Leavitt to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Leavitt replaced former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman at EPA. She resigned in May 2003.

About 18,000 people work at EPA, which was created to enforce environmental laws and research environmental problems affecting air, water and land.

At EPA, Whitman was in charge of ensuring the consent decrees that diesel engine makers signed in 1998 were implemented on Oct. 1, 2002. She and Leavitt were also in charge of ensuring compliance with the 2006 ultra-low sulfur diesel rule, and the 2007-2010 on-road diesel engine rule, the latter requiring engine manufacturers to reduce emissions to negligible levels.

Leavitt, Utah's governor for 11 years before joining the Bush administration in late 2003, would succeed Tommy Thompson, who recently resigned. The nomination would require Senate confirmation.

Bush is expected to make air pollution a top priority in Congress early next year, starting with a push to build support for his pollution-cutting plan, the Associated Press reported.

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