Hillary named US secretary of state

President-elect Barack Obama made it official on Monday. He is nominating Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, to be his secretary of State, reports V Krishna.

President-elect Barack Obama made it official on Monday. He is nominating Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination who questioned his foreign policy credentials, to be his secretary of State.

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Clinton, 61, brings star power to the job. She has travelled the world, first as first lady and then as a senator, and has been active on the Senate Armed Services Committee. She is popular in India and among Indian-Americans.

President Bush’s Defence Secretary Robert Gates will stay on at the Pentagon, the first such carryover by a president of a different party. During the campaign,

Gates, 65, a former CIA director, disagreed with Obama over the idea of a timetable for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, but he is widely respected as a pragmatist who recognises the limits of military power. Obama had said he would include a Republican in his Cabinet, and this move will also ensure continuity at the Defence Department.

All three picks are seen as more hawkish than the president-elect.

At a press conference in Chicago, Obama also announced that Eric Holder will become the United States’ first black attorney general. He has served as a judge and as a Justice Department official. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, an early supporter of Obama, will be in charge of homeland security. Susan Rice, a longtime foreign policy adviser to Obama, will become the US ambassador to the United Nations.

Obama said his team will help usher in a new dawn of American leadership, balancing military might and diplomacy, economic power and the strength of moral example.