President Bush is expected to name Zalmay Khalilzad to replace Negroponte as ambassador. Khalilzad has been serving as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Last year he was accused of pressuring opposition candidates to drop out of the Afghan election in order to ensure the victory of the U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai. Zalmay Khalilzad was a leading proponent of overthrowing Saddam Hussein. In 1998 he co-signed a letter to President Clinton sent by the Project for the New American Century calling for regime change in Iraq. Other signers of the letter included Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.