Michael Brown blamed the media for undermining his authority by questioning his credentials for the job, and local officials in Louisiana -- which took the full force of the deadly August 29 storm -- for ignoring his advice.

But his defence failed to impress some members of the House committee charged with investigating the response to the storm, which killed more than 1,100 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

"That's why I'm happy you left, because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer tells me that you weren't capable to do the job," said Representative Christopher Shays, a Republican.

"I take great umbrage to that comment, Congressman," Brown responded, adding: "So I guess you want me to be this superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans."

Brown resigned from his post less than two weeks after Katrina amid a tempest of criticism of his handling of the disaster, which left New Orleans flooded and abandoned, and his suitability to run FEMA.

His resignation as FEMA chief embarrassed under-fire President George W. Bush, who had stood up for Brown in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, telling him: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

In his opening comments to the committee, Brown said his biggest mistakes were mishandling the media and failing to convince Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to "iron out their differences."

"I very strongly, personally regret that I was unable to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together. I just couldn't pull that off," he said.

Brown is a Republican, while both Blanco and Nagin are Democrats.

He also insisted that FEMA was a "coordinator" and not a "first responder" to natural disasters, which was primarily the job of state and local authorities. "Coordinating is talking to the governor and the mayor, and encouraging them to do their obligation to their citizens. I am not a dictator and I am not going and cannot go in there and force them to do that," he said.

He also rejected media accusations that he lacked emergency relief experience before he joined the agency as a Bush appointee in 2001, and that there were discrepancies in his official FEMA resume.

The Washington Post has said that five of eight top FEMA officials -- all with ties to Bush's 2000 campaign -- had virtually no experience in handling disasters.

Brown described the media reports attacking his credentials as "false."

"I have overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I am doing and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," he said.

Bush himself has faced outspoken criticism over his perceived lack of leadership during the crisis, and opposition Democrats have seized the opportunity to blame the administration for FEMA's alleged failures.

Democrat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi said: "As hurricane Katrina tragically demonstrated, serious consequences result when unqualified cronies are appointed to federal public safety positions."

Speaking on a trip Tuesday to areas of Louisiana and Texas which were hit on the weekend by Hurricane Rita, the second storm in a month to stretch emergency response measures, Bush said he understood "there's a lot of frustration" among local residents.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had not watched Brown's testimony.

"It's important that Congress move forward and do a thorough investigation of what went wrong and what went right, and look at lessons learned. We want to fix what went wrong ... " he said. Related Links
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