General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq who implemented President Bush’s troop “surge” strategy, is to leave his post as part of a significant military shake-up in the region, it was announced yesterday.

General Petraeus will be nominated by Mr Bush to take charge of US Central Command in Florida, which oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Senate must first confirm him in his new position, and little opposition is expected.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said that Mr Bush will also nominate Lieutenant-General Ray Odierno to replace General Petraeus in Baghdad. General Odierno, who finished a 15-month tour as General Petraeus’s deputy in Baghdad in February, has been a controversial figure in Iraq.

During the onset of the Iraqi insurgency earlier in the war, his 4th Infantry Division was criticised for harsh tactics and faced allegations of abusing detainees, the antithesis of the “hearts and minds” approach to counter-insurgency favoured by General Petraeus.

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If confirmed, General Petraeus will replace Admiral William Fallon at Centcom. The admiral resigned in March after a magazine reported that he was at odds with Mr Bush over the Administration’s Iran policy. Behind the scenes, Admiral Fallon, technically General Petraeus’s superior, was frustrated at being ignored by the White House in favour of General Petraeus, and had also had his requests for additional troops in Afghanistan snubbed.

General Petraeus, 55, will leave Iraq as one of the few military officials whose reputation has been burnished by the war. He has been praised widely for implementing the surge strategy that improved security in Baghdad, although in a sobering progress report to Congress last month he described the situation in Iraq as “fragile and reversible”.

Mr Gates said of General Petraeus: “I don’t know anybody in the US military who is better qualified to lead in that area.” General Petraeus will not leave his post in Iraq until late summer or early autumn, and he will make a recommendation in mid-September on whether a drawdown of US forces in Iraq can continue after the last surge brigade leaves in July.

“I am honoured to be nominated for this position and to have an opportunity to continue to serve with America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians,” General Petraeus said in a brief statement from Baghdad.

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