Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown was pulled off relief operations in the area on Friday.

Critics have been calling for Brown's resignation over FEMA's slow response to the disaster. Questions have also surfaced about Brown's qualifications for the job as head of the nation's top disaster-response agency, as well as discrepancies on his resume pointed out in a news report.

"I have directed Mike Brown to return to administering FEMA nationally," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a news conference in Baton Rouge on Friday, where he was accompanied by Brown.

Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, La., where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the relief effort.

Now, he will be replaced by Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen, chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts, according to The Associated Press.

At the press conference Friday, Brown did not respond to questions about his departure from Louisiana.

Instead, Chertoff stepped in to address the issue, pointing out that Katrina was not FEMA's only responsibility.

"FEMA has the responsibility not only to participate in this recovery effort, it's got a lot of other responsibilities. We've got tropical storms and hurricanes brewing in the ocean," Chertoff said.

"And while it's very important to focus an enormous amount of attention and effort to what is going on here, we cannot afford to let our guard down with respect to other things that might happen."

When a reporter directed questions to Brown himself, asking if this was the first step in Brown's resignation, or whether he wanted to respond to reports that he embellished his resume, Chertoff intervened.

"I am going to answer the questions -- I have explained what we are doing. I thought I was about as clear as I possibly could be in English," Chertoff said.

Although U.S. President George Bush had congratulated Brown for "doing a heck of a job," the FEMA chief is being blamed for what is widely considered the flagging national response to the disaster.

Asked if he was being made a scapegoat for a relief effort that has drawn criticism, Brown told AP: "By the press, yes. By the president, No."

Increasing criticism

In recent days, several Democratic members of Congress have called for Brown to be fired immediately.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who urged the president on Sept. 6 to fire Brown, said: "At last President Bush has recognized what I have been saying for more than a week -- the federal response to this disaster must be managed by a capable leader." 

Reports, meanwhile, suggest Brown padded his resume to exaggerate his previous emergency management background.

A 2001 press release on the White House website says that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing emergency services divisions."

Brown's official biography on the FEMA website says that his background in state and local government also includes serving as Edmond's "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight" and as a city councilman.

But Randel Shadid, former mayor of Edmond, told AP on Friday that Brown had been an assistant to the city manager -- not assistant city manager.

Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, bolstered Shadid's claim.

Deakins also said that Brown was "an assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees.

However, FEMA's office of public affairs deputy strategic director, Nicol Andrews, dismissed the claims, saying Brown became an "assistant city manager" after beginning as an intern.

"According to Mike Brown," Andrews told Time magazine, which first reported the discrepancy, several points raised by the magazine are "very inaccurate."

FEMA spokesperson Natalie Rule added that it was "very disappointing" that Time decided to use, as their primary source, a website "that does not even claim or make promises to carry accurate or complete information."

The magazine also reported that Brown's profile on the website FindLaw.com -- which lists information provided to it by lawyers or their offices -- describes him as an "outstanding political science professor" at Central State University in Edmond, Okla.

The school, however, said Brown had only been a student.

Separately, Newsday reported another discrepancy in Brown's stated background. The official White House announcement of Brown's nomination to head FEMA in January 2003 lists his previous experience as "the Executive Director of the Independent Electrical Contractors" -- a trade group based in Alexandria, Va.

Two officials of the group told Newsday this week that Brown never was the national head of the group. But he did serve as the executive director of a regional chapter, based in Colorado.

Brown, a 50-year-old lawyer, served as FEMA's general counsel in 2001 after the agency's then-director Joe Allbaugh hired him on.

He spent nine years as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. There are conflicting stories about his stint there, but some reports say Brown was fired after an acrimonious relationship with judges and stewards.

In his own defence of his qualifications, Brown said as the agency's general counsel he oversaw responses to 164 presidential declared emergencies and disasters -- including the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster and the California wildfires later that year.