WASHINGTON – Florida Rep. Mark Foley submitted a letter of resignation from Congress today in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page, according to a congressional official.

Foley, 52, had been considered a shoo-in for re-election until the e-mails surfaced in recent days.

“I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

The two-sentence statement did not refer to the e-mails and gave no reason for Foley’s decision to abruptly abandon a flourishing career in Congress.

Campaign aides had previously acknowledged that the Republican congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had said there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the e-mail correspondence.

Foley’s election opponent, Democrat Tim Mahoney, has called for an investigation.

The correspondence took place in August 2005 after the boy gave Foley a handwritten thank you note before returning to Louisiana.

Foley was running for re-election to a seventh term. He has represented his district, which includes West Palm Beach, since 1995. Florida Republicans could replace Foley on the ballot.

In his exchanges with the boy, Foley asked how old he was, what he wanted for his upcoming birthday, how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and for a photo.

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.

“The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process,” the group wrote, adding that the committee, “must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House.”

According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander’s office about Foley’s e-mails, saying, “This freaked me out.” On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word “sick” 13 times.

He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank you card. The boy also said Foley wrote that he e-mailed another page.

“he’s such a nice guy,” Foley wrote about the other boy. “acts much older than his age…and hes in really great shape…i am just finished riding my bike on a 25 mile journey now heading to the gym…whats school like for you this year?”

In other e-mails, Foley wrote, “I am back in Florida now…its nice here…been raining today…it sounds like you will have some fun over the next few weeks…how old are you now?” and “how are you weathering the hurricane…are you safe…send me an email pic of you as well.”

What the boy wrote to Foley, who is single, wasn’t available. The e-mails were sent from Foley’s personal account, which Foley spokesman Jason Kello says he uses to communicate with many people, including Gov. Jeb Bush.

“They have taken these e-mails out of context in order to smear a good man,” said Kello, who described the exchange as “nonchalant, casual.” He said Foley didn’t save his e-mails or the boy’s response.

Efforts to reach the boy were unsuccessful, but he told the St. Petersburg Times last November, “I thought it was very inappropriate. After the one about the picture, I decided to stop e-mailing him back.” The Times didn’t publish the comments until today.

The campaign for Mahoney, who trails Foley in the polls, said it didn’t release the e-mails and wouldn’t make them part of the campaign. In a statement released by Mahoney spokesman Jessica Santillo, the campaign referred to the boy as an “alleged victim.”

“The seriousness of these allegations goes far beyond the tit for tat of a political campaign,” Santillo said. “This is a matter for the appropriate authorities to investigate. I believe Mr. Foley deserves the benefit of the doubt until these allegations are proven true or false.”

Alexander’s chief of staff, Royal Alexander, didn’t return several calls to his cell phone Thursday and Friday seeking comment. Alexander’s press secretary, Adam Terry, didn’t return an e-mail or phone messages. Alexander and Foley wouldn’t talk to reporters while the House was in session Thursday and Foley didn’t return calls to his cell phone.

Kello disputed the claim that the e-mails weren’t distributed by the Mahoney campaign.

“They’ve been shopping this around to reporters for weeks now. They want a headline and that’s it. It’s a political smear campaign of the worst kind,” Kello said.

Foley was chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

He is a six-term lawmaker who represents a congressional district that stretches from Jupiter and Fort Pierce on Florida’s east coast to Port Charlotte on the Gulf Coast.

A former restaurateur and real estate broker, Foley began his political career in 1977 as a Lake Worth city commissioner. He went on to serve as vice mayor before spending four years in Tallahassee as a state house member and then a state senator.

Born in Newton, Mass., he dropped out of Palm Beach Community College at the age of 20 and opened a local restaurant, according to the National Journal’s Political Almanac.

Foley was one of the new faces swept into Congress in the 1994 Republican tidal wave that gave the GOP control of both the House and Senate for the first time in generations.

The congressman championed legislation targeting the Internet child porn industry. He recently introduced legislation to hold credit card companies and Internet service providers accountable if they knowingly facilitate child pornography.