NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams says he will be stepping away from the newscast for "the next several days" in the wake of the furor surrounding his false claims that he had been in a helicopter hit by a grenade during the Iraq war.

In a note posted on the NBC News public relations website, Williams says Lester Holt, who anchors the newscast on weekends, will be taking his place while he is gone.

"In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions," writes Williams, who's also managing editor of NBC Nightly News.

"Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us."

Williams apologized Wednesday for telling the story a week earlier in a Nightly News tribute to a veteran he had befriended during a 2003 reporting trip to Iraq. Before expressing his regrets on the air, Williams did so online and in an interview with the newspaper Stars & Stripes.