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Prime Minister Stephen Harper accepted the resignation of Guiliano Zaccardelli on Wednesday and thanked the embattled RCMP commissioner for his 36 years of service.

Mr. Harper's surprise announcement came during Question Period, where he said both he and Mr. Zaccardelli had agreed that it was time for a change in the top ranks of the RCMP.

"Commissioner Zaccardelli submitted his resignation to me and I accepted it," Mr. Harper said. "The commissioner has indicated to me that it would be in the best interest to have new leadership in this great organization as it faces challenges in the future. I'd like to thank the commissioner for his long and dedicated service to the country."

The move comes one day after Mr. Zaccardelli delivered contradictory testimony at a Commons committee on the inquiry into the case of Maher Arar.

Mr. Arar was detained in New York in 2002, before being deported to a Syrian prison, where he spent a year incarcerated. He was tortured at the hands of authorities there.

Mr. Arar's deportation occurred, in part, because of false information linking him with al-Qaeda that was provided to U.S. officials by the RCMP, an inquiry into the matter concluded earlier this year.

Mr. Zaccardelli had previously testified before the Public Safety committee that he had first heard about the erroneous information being shared with U.S. officials as early as 2002.

But on Monday during a speech in Ottawa, the RCMP chief changed his tune, saying it wasn't until Justice Dennis O'Connor released his report on the Arar affair two months ago that he and the upper ranks of RCMP learned about the false information being shared with their U.S. counterparts.

He repeated those claims on Tuesday before the Commons committee, saying he had made a "mistake" in his previous testimony and had returned to "set the record straight."

The commissioner testified Tuesday that he did not intend to mislead the committee, but that he had mistakenly incorporated information he first knew of from the inquiry report this September with his recollection of what he knew in 2002 and 2003.

Mr. Harper said he was "surprised and concerned" by the commissioner's conflicting testimony Tuesday and he promised Ottawa would examine it in an "objective, professional and dispassionate" manner "with full regard to due process."

In little more than 24 hours, Ottawa announced the commissioner's resignation.

Mr. Zaccardelli said in his letter of resignation Wednesday that it is was "with great sadness" that he was resigning his post, but said the events after the release of Justice O'Connor's report had "taken on a life of their own."

"I must take responsibility for having added to the confusion in my first appearance before the Parliamentary Committee. My recent attempt to set the record straight and correct misperceptions I helped create has stirred new controversy," he wrote in his resignation letter.

"The continuing controversy, however, makes it increasingly difficult for me and for the institution to fulfill its responsibilities to the Canadian people," he said.