(For factbox on Republicans seen as potential candidates for their party's nomination in 2012, click on [ID:nN03184162]

* Palin says to work 'outside government' for change

* Gives no indication of future plans

* Analysts speculate on possible bid for presidency

* Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell takes over July 26 (Recasts with background, detail throughout)

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, July 3 (Reuters) - Sarah Palin, the brash, deeply conservative governor of Alaska who crashed onto the U.S. national political scene last year as the Republican candidate for U.S. vice president, announced abruptly on Friday she was resigning as governor.

In a rambling statement to the media, in which she took no questions, Palin, 45, indicated she wanted to extend her influence in U.S. politics and some analysts said she appeared to be laying the ground for a run at the presidency in 2012.

"We are not retreating, we are advancing in a different direction," Palin said, employing the imprecise circumlocutions that characterize her public pronouncements. "We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time."