THE TELEGRAPH: Senator Hillary Clinton has accepted President-Elect Barack Obama's offer to become Secretary of State, the second most prestigious job in the country, according to friends.
She will give up her seat as a senator for New York and become the international face of the administration of the man who defeated her in a long and sometimes bitter battle for the Democratic Party's nomination.
With other reports saying Mr Obama will name his economic team on Monday, he could have completed much of his most important recruitment at an unprecedented early stage, just three weeks after his momentous victory on Nov 4.
NBC News reported that he will nominate Timothy Geithner, 47, as treasury secretary. As head of the New York federal reserve bank he has been involved with $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, which he will take charge of if he is confirmed.
After days of deliberation, friends of Mrs Clinton told the New York Times that she had put aside her doubts about yielding her senate seat after consulting Mr Obama again on what her role would be.
Friends were earlier quoted as saying that the 61-year-old former First Lady is concerned about what would come after her four years - the usual term - as the nation's top diplomat. As a representative of liberal New York state, she probably had a safe Senate seat for life.
However she is the junior of two senators from the state, and even after eight years in the Senate remains a long way down the pecking order of Democratic senators. She is several years away from one of the coveted committee chairmanships, such as foreign affairs, health or the environment, and the party's leadership in the Senate is unwilling to break precedent by letting her jump the queue.
As Secretary of State she would be arguably the second most powerful person in the country, and would be serving at a particularly critical time in US history.
"She will be aware that the influence of secretary of state on foreign policy is comparable to the whole of the senate," said Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution think tank.
The only doubts about her appointment within the Obama camp were removed after the vetting team pronounced themselves satisfied after examining his extensive overseas financial connections. >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | November 21, 2008
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