WASHINGTON -- Michael Brown, beleaguered director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, yesterday was relieved of his duties overseeing FEMA's relief operations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and sent back to his desk in Washington.

Michael Brown ... recalled to Washington, D.C. Vice Adm. Thad Allen ... officially in charge.

The White House insisted that President Bush had not asked for the director's resignation, nor had it been offered, but the move embarrassed Brown and was clearly orchestrated by the White House to get him out of the spotlight.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff made the announcement, insisting that Brown had done a good job but that, as head of the disaster relief agency, he needed to be keeping an eye on other developing hurricanes and the ever-present possibility of a terrorist attack.

Acknowledging for the first time that Katrina "will go down as the largest natural disaster in American history," Chertoff appointed Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who has been overseeing Coast Guard search and rescue missions, to be the principal federal official on the ground overseeing the government's response.

The political storm that erupted over FEMA's slow response to evacuating and caring for thousands of people in New Orleans after the city flooded has been intense. White House officials yesterday privately conceded that Brown, who has been working out of Baton Rouge, La., had become a "problem" and a "distraction," as the Bush administration was trying to get past the public relations nightmare over allegations that the federal response to Katrina was slow and inadequate. The controversy has driven the president's job approval rating down to the low 40s.

Bush, touring the devastation in Mississippi last week with Brown at his side, said, "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

But as outrage swirled over Brown's statement that he hadn't known that as many as 20,000 people were stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center, even after extenstive TV news broadcasts showing the suffering people there without food and water, White House confidence in Brown ebbed.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., began calling daily for Brown to resign or be fired.

Late this week, another controversy erupted over whether Brown had padded his resume to indicate that he had more disaster experience that he really did. Before becoming FEMA's director, he was the agency's general counsel. Before that, Brown, an Oklahoma lawyer, had worked for the International Arabian Horse Association.

FEMA officials yesterday denied allegations that Brown had claimed to have been assistant city manager in charge of disaster relief for Edmond, Okla., where he had, in fact, been an assistant to the city manager. But the perception spread throughout Washington that he did not have the qualifications to deal with Katrina's devastation.

Bush turned the problem of what to do with Brown over to Vice President Dick Cheney, who this week has gone to see the devastation himself and spoke with relief personnel in the field. After Cheney reportedly heard plaints from some officials that Brown appeared unsure of his decision-making and overwhelmed by the chaos, the vice president directed Chertoff to move Brown out of the public spotlight.

FEMA used to be an independent agency, reporting directly to the president. But since the massive Department of Homeland Security was created because of the Sept. 11, 2001, domestic terror attacks, the director of FEMA reports to the homeland security secretary.

Former FEMA Director Jamie Lee Witt, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, was widely credited with greatly improving the agency during the 1990s. Witt last year testified on Capitol Hill that putting FEMA within the new department would be a serious mistake, noting that layers of bureaucracy can't be tolerated "when time is of the essence and devastating events are unfolding rapidly." Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco last week hired Witt as her special advisor for the disaster recovery.

At a news conference yesterday afternoon, Chertoff did not permit Brown to answer questions. "Michael Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge," Chertoff said, adding that Brown "has got a lot of other responsibilities. We cannot afford to let our guard down. I want to make sure FEMA continues to be run the way it needs to be."

In a later statement, Brown said that with Hurricane Ophelia off the east coast of Florida, with no clear direction yet, "I am returning to Washington, D.C., to resume oversight over operations for the arrival of Hurricane Ophelia and the immediate response efforts."

The Associated Presssaid he denied having been demoted and said he was "anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies that are being said." The AP also quoted him as saying: "I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep. And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA [headquarters] and continue to do all I can to help these victims.

"This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit, and now we have to help these victims," Brown told the AP.

Four Democratic senators maintained that removing Brown from the line of fire in Louisiana was insufficient. A letter to Bush signed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois, Deborah Stabenow of Michigan and Charles Schumer of New York asked for Brown's firing because of his "failures" in the Gulf Coast region and "his reported biographical fabrications."

"The individual in charge of FEMA must inspire confidence and be able to coordinate hundreds of federal, state and local resources," the seantors wrote. "Mr. Brown simply doesn't have the ability or the experience to oversee a coordinated federal response of this magnitude."

Part of the criticism of the Bush administration response since Katrina struck has been that several of FEMA's disaster-mitigation programs have been substantially reduced. Although FEMA's budget was doubled in 2002, to $6.6 billion, most of that money was intended to counter terrorist attacks.

Allen assumed his duties as Coast Guard chief of staff and commanding officer of Coast Guard headquarters in Washington in May 2002. Known as a take-charge, no-nonsense officer, he is the third-highes- ranking person in the Guard, responsible for planning, budget and personnel.

Fresh criticism of the federal response came yesterday from Bush's former secretary of state, Colin Powell, a Republican, retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In remarks to ABC-TV interviewer Barbara Walters broadcast last night, Powell said a "lot of failures" contributed to problems in Katrina's wake. He said it was not racism that delayed help, but economic factors.

"When you look at those who weren't able to get out, it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious to everybody that, when you order a mandatory evacuation, you can't expect everybody to evacuate on their own," he said. "These are people who don't have credit cards; only 1 in 10 families at that economic level in New Orleans have a car.

"So it wasn't a racial thing, but poverty disproportionately affects African Americans in this country. And it happened because they were poor."

AFTER KATRINA