US president-elect Barack Obama is on track to nominate Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state after the November 27th Thanksgiving holiday, a Democratic official said.
Mrs Clinton moved closer to taking the job after her husband, former president Bill Clinton, offered to allow ethics reviews of future business and charitable activities should she be picked by Mr Obama as the country's top diplomat.
Mr Clinton and the Obama team have also worked out financial disclosure issues involving the former president, the official said.
Elsewhere, retired general James Jones has emerged as a leading contender for White House national security adviser.
Democratic sources said Mr Jones, the former top operational commander of Nato, was in the running for the job along with James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in Mr Clinton's administration.
An ABC News report said Mr Jones was the president-elect's preferred candidate and the president-elect valued in particular his more-than four decades of military experience.
Mr Jones is widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans but has avoided aligning himself with either party.
He is known to have been a strong critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war. He is quoted as describing the Iraq war as a "debacle," in Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward's 2006 book State of Denial.
While refusing to confirm it publicly, Jones has not disputed the quote, published while he was still serving at Nato.
Reuters