WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush has decided to shut down the White House offices on AIDS policy and race relations, angering activists who say the move sends the wrong signal about his commitment to those issues, USA Today reported on Wednesday.

White House chief of staff Andy Card told the newspaper Bush intends to close the Office of National AIDS Policy and the Office on the President's Initiative for One America, both created by former President Clinton.

Closing the offices, which were created to highlight the issues and help government agencies work together, does not mean those issues are not priorities, Card said in an interview.

Card said the presumption that a White House bureaucracy looks the same from administration to administration is a myth.

``What matters is policy and action,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told the newspaper, adding that AIDS policy in the Bush administration will be handled by a new AIDS coordinator in the Domestic Policy Council and race relations by the Office of Public Liaison.

William Taylor of the independent Citizens' Commission on Civil Right criticized the decision to close the office on race relations in light of concerns about Attorney General John Ashcroft's commitment to enforcing civil rights laws.

``It's important to have an institutional focus on discrimination, Taylor told USA Today.

The report said AIDS activists also voiced concern about the dismantling of the AIDS policy office.

``It sends a signal that AIDS is over, when nothing could be further from the truth,'' former Republican congressman Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin, told the newspaper. He is quoted as saying Bush's move ``will probably be interpreted as a negative about the Republican Party and the government generally.''