After weeks of mounting pressure and a significant drop in the polls Gov. Eliot Spitzer officially withdrew a proposal to grant New York state driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Spitzer made the announcement Wednesday morning in Washington following a face-to-face meeting with the state's congressional representatives.

"I have listened to the legitimate concerns of the public," Spitzer said in a briefing with reporters. "Leadership is also about listening."

A day earlier, the Siena New York Poll showed that only 25 percent of state voters would again cast a ballot for Spitzer, who was elected to office a year ago with 69 percent of the vote.

The issue of national security, he said, remains a top concern, which Washington needs to address.

"The federal government has lost control of its borders, has allowed millions of undocumented immigrants to enter our country, and now has no solution to deal with it," Spitzer said.

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-Clarence, agreed that the immigration system needs to be fixed but the license proposal was not the answer.

"Providing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants would have only exacerbated the current immigration system morass," he said.

The first-year governor had defended the plan saying it would make the state more secure by bringing more people into the system and providing the greatest number of people with the greatest amount of security possible.

But the idea failed to gain traction and even had become a talking point in the Democratic presidential primary, with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton coming under fire from challengers for her tepid comments on the matter.