RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina is allowing the nomination of war-wounded Iraq veteran Tammy Duckworth, for a top post in the Department of Veterans Affairs, to proceed.

"I will support her," Burr yesterday told the News & Observer, a McClatchy newspaper.

Burr, the ranking Republican on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, held up Duckworth's nomination last week because he had questions about a confidential financial questionnaire she had filled out. The delay angered some veterans' groups.

Duckworth, a former Hawai'i resident, is a National Guard major who lost both her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was attacked in Iraq.

President Obama has nominated her as an assistant secretary of veterans' affairs.

Burr said he'd asked for a delay in the Senate confirmation vote because of "discrepancies" and "inconsistencies" in what he said were three different versions of her financial disclosure statement she submitted to the Senate committee.

He would not discuss the details, other than saying, "The math didn't add up." Duckworth subsequently provided additional information.

"At the end of the day," Burr said, "I don't think there is a financial question about Tammy Duckworth. I think she is extremely sloppy, but that is not a disqualification."

Duckworth ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2006 and is now the head of veterans' affairs for the state of Illinois. Duckworth, a graduate of McKinley High School and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, had been critical of the Bush administration's handling of veterans' care.

Burr said the financial disclosure questionnaires of Obama administration nominees were being scrutinized because of the number of tax problems that have emerged.

He said the fact that disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich had appointed Duckworth to the Illinois job gave him pause, but that he decided not to pursue that angle.