O'Neill To Sell Alcoa Stock

Bowing to critics, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said Sunday he will sell his extensive aluminum company stock to avoid possible conflicts.

O'Neill, hammered for two months for keeping about $100 million in stock and stock options from Pittsburgh-based Alcoa Inc., said the decision frees him to focus on all economic issues.

The biggest task for the former Alcoa chief is promoting President Bush's $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut on Capitol Hill.

He had sold his holdings in General Motors, Citigroup and four investment funds on the advice of ethics attorneys after becoming Mr. Bush's chief economic policy maker in January, but was castigated in newspaper editorials and by consumer groups for keeping the Alcoa stock.

"I didn't realize we were going to have this kind of ongoing question, and I'm simply going to take it off the table," O'Neill said on ABC's This Week, adding that he wanted to "get on with my business."

O'Neill, who headed the company for 13 years, had promised not to handle any issues that could impact Alcoa. O'Neill said that although he was advised that he could keep the Alcoa stock, he did not want "lawyers having to be looking at, `Is it OK for me to be involved in this issue, or that issue?"'

The treasury secretary said that he will sell his stock and put the proceeds into mutual funds. He said the sales will be spaced over time.

O'Neill, former deputy budget director under President Ford, said he was acting "because the president has drawn me into so many issues involving not just the Treasury portfolio that I have, but almost every other issue that the government's involved in."

He said in a statement that he still would avoid handling matters "that could directly and predictably affect" Alcoa's ability to pay his pension. He receives $926,318 a year from the company.