(Photo: AP)

Washington (People’s Daily) -- US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he asked for the resignation of national security adviser John Bolton.

“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump tweeted.

“I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”

Bolton, who had been scheduled to give a press conference at the White House on an unrelated matter, denied being fired and insisted instead that he had resigned.

The news, coming days after Trump caused uproar by revealing he was canceling secret talks with Afghanistan's Taliban, stunned Washington.

Bolton is a veteran and controversial figure closely linked to the invasion of Iraq and other aggressive foreign policy decisions. He had been seen as one of the main driving forces in the White House's muscular approach to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and elsewhere.

Famous for his large moustache and ever-present yellow legal pad, the hardline former US ambassador to the United Nations had pushed back against Trump's dramatic, though so far stumbling, attempts to negotiate with the Taliban and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

According to US media reports, the president's extraordinary, failed bid to fly Taliban leaders into the presidential retreat at Camp David last weekend sparked a major, final row.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cautioned that Bolton's exit should not be interpreted as heralding strategy changes.

"I don't think any leader around the world should make any assumption that because someone of us departs that President Trump's foreign policy will change in a material way," Pompeo told reporters.

And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin underlined that Trump and top aides remain "completely aligned" on Washington's crippling sanctions against Iran, known as the maximum pressure campaign.

But when asked if Trump was still open to meeting his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly this month -- an event that would be as ground breaking as his proposed Taliban talks -- Pompeo said "sure."

(With inputs from AFP)