Washington, April 13 (DPA) After a week of intense pressure from employees and civil rights advocates, CBS radio said it had fired for good provocative talk show host Don Imus for racist and sexist slandering of young female athletes.

"All of us have been deeply upset and repulsed by the statements that were made on our air," said CBS Les Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS, according to a statement read by CNN Thursday.

He indicated that the decision was made after intense days of discussions with "concerned groups" and CBS employees.

Imus was already on a two-week suspension by CBS for calling the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed ho's" on April 4. A day earlier, the underdog Rutgers team, whose players are predominantly black, had lost in the national final of the collegiate women's championships.

Nappy is an archaic, sometimes racially fraught term for the tightly curled hair common to African-Americans, and ho is a street slang for whores.

Moonves said the weeklong furore had ignited "much discussion of what effect this language has on our young people ... particularly young women of colour trying to make their way in this society".

On Wednesday, cable news channel MSNBC announced that it would no longer buy the television rights to Imus' daily talk show from CBS radio. The nationally syndicated radio programme, "Imus in the Morning," originated from a New York studio and was simulcast on MSNBC.

Imus, whose show reportedly earned up to $50 million a year for broadcasters, was an originator of the so-called shock-jock radio genre decades ago. As Imus aged and his morning-radio imitators became cruder, he gradually included more serious talk and interviews alongside sometimes-provocative humour.

Imus regularly attracted top guests from American media and politics from both left and right. Two of the most prominent members of the US Senate, John Kerry and John McCain, both of whom have run for president, have been Imus regulars.