FBI director to step down next month; White House begins search.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ Eight years into his 10-year term as head of the FBI, Director Louis Freeh announced Tuesday that he would resign effective at the end of June.

Freeh, 51, did not say why he was stepping down before his term expires in 2003. But it was widely speculated that he would seek a high-paying job in the private security so he can afford to put his six sons, ages 3 to 16, through private school and college. Freeh earns about $130,000 a year as FBI director

"Over the last few years people wondered if Director Freeh could afford to stay in public service much longer," said John Sennett, head of the FBI Agents Association. "But he also took every opportunity to dispel rumors that his resignation was imminent."

Successors already being discussed include Jack C. Lawn, a former FBI agent who also headed the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I'm disappointed," President Bush said. " . . . I was hoping he would stay on." The president said Freeh told him Monday afternoon that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

"The FBI is the greatest organization for law enforcement ever created by (a) democratic society," Freeh wrote in his five-page resignation letter, saying they were the same words he uttered the day he was nominated by President Clinton on Sept. 1, 1993.

Freeh's relationship with Clinton cooled after the president was the subject of several investigations and scandals, including his testimony about his relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky, which led to the president's impeachment.