WASHINGTON, July 13 (Xinhuanet) -- US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Wednesday announced a massive reform plan to streamline and strengthen his massive department which wasfounded only two years ago and often criticized for internal strife and ineffectiveness.

    The move is aimed to enable the department, comprising 22 agencies and nearly 180,000 employees, to be better prepared, effective and efficient in defending the country from terror attacks, said Chertoff.

    Promising his department will always adopt an open attitude towards change, Chertoff said the reform plan will go ahead "straight forward" and whenever there is a mistake his men will be in the first place to fix it.

    Highlights of the restructuring include creation of an intelligence chief to centralize the information gathered by various Homeland agencies.

    A chief medical officer will also be named to oversee and coordinate efforts against bioterror while a new undersecretary will be placed in charge of strategic planning, foreign relations and coordination with the private sector.

    The reform will mark a major turning point for the country's largest civilian cabinet department, launched over two years ago by the Bush administration at the request of the Congress.

    The creation of the Homeland Security Department, the largest federal reorganization in the United States in 50 years, was aimedto centralize efforts to defend the US homeland from terror attacks.

    However, criticism arose as the newly-founded department lackedcoordination among its numerous agencies and personnel, which led to slow response and inefficiency.

    When Chertoff, a former federal appellate judge, took over the helm of the department early this year, he was determined to change that and an overall review of the department's job was ordered in March.

    Some analysts said the reform may be the last chance to save the problem-ridden department and the administration should have done so earlier.

    "Someone will throw up their hands and say they're organizing chairs on the Titanic," James Jay Carafano, a researcher at the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation, was quoted by the Los Angles Times as saying.

    "This is not a two-year problem, it's a 20-or 30-year project...... But if he (Chertoff) can do it, it will be fine, "said Carafano. Enditem