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WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Gale Norton resigned Friday after five years in President Bush's Cabinet and at a time when her agency is part of a lobbying scandal over Indian gaming licenses.

In a letter to Bush, Norton said the resignation would be effective at the end of March.

"Now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb, catch my breath, then set my sights on new goals to achieve in the private sector," she said in the two-page resignation letter.

Norton, who turns 52 today, said she and her husband "hope to end up closer to the mountains we love in the West."

Bush called Norton a strong advocate for "the wise use and protection of our nation's natural resources."

"When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region, she played a leading role in my administration's efforts to restore badly needed offshore energy production," he said.

The leading Republican and Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee have said e-mails show that Steven Griles, Norton's former deputy, had a close relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Another one-time Norton associate, Italia Federici, helped Abramoff gain access to Griles in exchange for contributions from Abramoff's Indian tribe clients, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., the committee chairman, and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., have said.

Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, guided the Bush administration's initiative to open government lands in the West to more oil and gas drilling.

As one of the architects of Bush's energy policy, she eased regulations to speed approval of drilling permits, particularly in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

She also was the administration's biggest advocate for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

In 1996 she sought the Republican Senate nomination in Colorado but was defeated by Wayne Allard, who now holds the seat. Later she co-founded the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a group that has become embroiled in the Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to federal felony charges related to congressional influence peddling and defrauding Indian tribes in Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas of millions of dollars.

The tribes were either seeking casino licenses or trying to prevent other tribes from opening competing casinos, and Abramoff on occasion represented both sides on the same issue, charging each hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. The Interior Department oversees Indian affairs, including tribes' gaming activities.

In e-mail exchanges that have been made public since his plea, Abramoff mentioned having an inside track at the department, and his clients donated heavily to the Republican environmental advocacy group Norton helped establish.

Norton met Abramoff in her office at least once and attended a dinner at which he was present, but aides have described the meetings as nonsubstantive.

● In Tucson and Southern Arizona, the Interior Department has many responsibilities, including these:

l The National Park Service runs Saguaro National Park and other areas.

l The Bureau of Reclamation controls the Central Arizona Project, which delivers Colorado River water to Tucson.

l The Bureau of Land Management manages Ironwood Forest National Monument, the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and Aravaipa Canyon.

l The BLM allows cattle grazing on 800,000 acres in Pima, Cochise, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties, including 374,510 acres in Pima County.

l The Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for protection of 23 endangered and threatened species in Pima County. It will decide this year whether to take the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl off the endangered list.

l The Interior Department will decide by next year whether to approve Pima County's proposed species habitat conservation plan, which is part of the county's overall Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.

— Tony Davis