NEW YORK – Donald H. Rumsfeld, the powerful defense secretary and architect of the Iraq war who left office two years ago as he faced ever-rising criticism, is working on a memoir to be published by Penguin Group in 2010.

“This will be a story that will span my lifetime,” Rumsfeld, 75, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday from his office in Washington, D.C. “It will be something that I will try hard to have be very fair and honest and useful. I hope it adds to people’s information about these times.”

Books by such former Bush administration officials as treasury secretary Paul O’Neill and CIA director George Tenet have come out, but Rumsfeld’s take is closer. A longtime friend and close ally of Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld was among the most influential defense secretaries ever and the most visible and controversial since Robert McNamara in the 1960s.

Rumsfeld met with several publishers and received “big bids” for his book, according to a publishing official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations. But Rumsfeld decided to accept no cash advance, only money for expenses. Any profits from sales of the memoir will be donated to a foundation he established recently to fund such projects as grants for “promising young individuals” interested in public service.

“I didn’t know when I wanted to do it and how fast I wanted to do it, and I didn’t want to feel an obligation to anybody,” said Rumsfeld, whose book is currently untitled.