Washington ? Republicans beat a retreat Wednesday on House ethics rules meant to shield Majority Leader Tom DeLay, marking a public embarrassment and unleashing an investigation whose direction and result can only be guessed.

After House Speaker Dennis Hastert announced the reversal, DeLay reiterated statements that he had made for a month — that he wants the chance to clear his name by going before the House ethics committee and explaining some overseas trips apparently paid for by lobbyists, a possible violation of House rules.

“The House needs a functioning ethics committee, and it’s the Republicans that have been trying to make that happen,” DeLay, R-Texas, said. “I look forward to providing the facts, once the committee is up and running.”

But Democrats hold radically different expectations for such an inquiry — not exoneration, but exposure of rules violations. Many have called DeLay corrupt and demanded his ouster.

“Let me say as clearly as I can: This legislation marks a beginning, not an ending,” said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, asserting that Republicans reversed course on the ethics rules mainly “to cauterize” a public relations disaster.

With allegations mounting about DeLay’s travel, fund-raising practices and relations with lobbyists, Democrats have refused to let the House ethics committee operate this year, objecting to rules the GOP majority pushed through in January. Under the previous procedures — developed on a bipartisan basis — party-line deadlock on an ethics complaint triggered an inquiry automatically. The new rule would let complaints die without bipartisan consent.

The panel admonished DeLay three times last fall.

Last week, the House ethics chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., tried to break the impasse by offering to immediately open a DeLay inquiry if Democrats accepted the new rules. They held firm, and Hastert seemed none too happy in announcing his side had backed down.

“The media wants to talk about ethics and as long as we’re at a stalemate, that’s all that is in the press today is the ethics stalemate. We need to move forward. We need to get this behind us,” the speaker told reporters after a closed-door morning meeting with GOP House members. “Right now we can’t clear his name.”