US President Barack Obama hailed retiring Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday as a "humble" patriot whose bipartisan civility should serve as an example to Washington's feuding politicians.

Obama, locked in an acrimonious battle with his Republican foes over raising the government's debt limit, said Gates loved the troops and rose above bitter political divisions to protect the country's interests.

"The integrity of Bob Gates is also a reminder, especially to folks here in Washington that civility and respectful discourse, and citizenship over partisanship are not quaint relics of a bygone era," Obama said at an elaborate farewell ceremony at the Pentagon.

"They are the timeless virtues that we need now more than ever."

Obama came into office calling for an end to petty politics and point-scoring but has appeared increasingly irritated with Republican lawmakers, venting his frustration at a news conference Wednesday.

Gates, 67, a Republican named to the Pentagon job in 2006 by former president George W. Bush and reappointed by Obama in 2009, was the first defense secretary to be asked to stay in the post by a newly elected president.

Obama said Gates was "a humble American patriot, a man of common sense and decency, quite simply one of our nation's finest public servants."

He said Gates would be remembered as one of the best American defense secretaries, and, in a surprise move, presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor he can bestow.

Gates, a consummate Washington insider who served eight presidents in the national security arena, including as CIA chief, had the backs of his troops and "loved them and fought for them," Obama said at a ceremony punctuated by roars from jets taking off from nearby Reagan National Airport.

"I am deeply honored and moved," Gates said after being awarded the medal, a twist to the ceremony not included on the official program.

"We should have known a couple of months ago, you are getting pretty good at this covert ops stuff," he joked, in a reference to the raid Obama ordered into Pakistan in May which killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The plain-speaking Gates is stepping down after four-and-a-half years on the job punctuated by protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and global turmoil that has tested US power, including fiscal crises and uprisings in the Arab world.

Known as a hawk during the Cold War, Gates lent heft to Obama's national security team and to some extent shielded the inexperienced president from criticism on the right.

Although Gates now enjoys backing across the political spectrum, he faced grueling Senate hearings in the late 1980s and early 1990s amid a legal probe over his role in the Iran-Contra scandal as a senior CIA official.

Gates will be succeeded by another Washington veteran, Leon Panetta, the outgoing director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who Obama said would lead "with clear vision and a steady hand."

The departure of Gates marks a reshuffling of Obama's national security team, as the Senate Thursday approved General David Petraeus, the outgoing commander in Afghanistan, as the next head of the CIA.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who opened the ceremony, paid tribute to Gates as "impenetrably" honest, with a sharp wit and a penchant for asking hard questions.

"He tells it straight, no bull, no fancy words," Mullen said.

Following a ceremony marked by a 19-gun salute, Gates is due to fly out of the capital later on Thursday for his lakeside home in Washington state.

He will be travelling on a military aircraft and still wield legal authority until Friday, when Panetta is due to be sworn in as defense secretary.

During the course of Gates' tenure, the burden of sending young men and women off to war began to show, and he would often choke up when meeting troops.

In his final message to the force Wednesday, Gates wrote: "For four and a half years, I have signed the orders deploying you, all too often into harm's way. This has weighed on me every day."

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