Rice Replaces Colin Powell

President George Bush today appointed his most trusted foreign policy adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state.

"The secretary of state is America's face to the world and in Dr Rice the world will see the strength, grace and decency of our country," Mr Bush said of Ms Rice, who is being promoted from her current role as national security adviser.

The president thanked Mr Powell, a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, for working "tirelessly and selflessly" on behalf of the country.

Ms Rice is the second White House loyalist to land a cabinet post since Mr Bush's re-election triggered a reshuffle that has presented several agency heads with the clear impression that their services were no longer needed. White House counsel Alberto Gonzales is Mr Bush's nominee to replace Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Mr Bush named Stephen Hadley, Ms Rice's deputy, to replace her as national security adviser, the top White House-based foreign policy post.

Ms Rice, who is considered more of a hardliner than the man she succeeds, has been Mr Bush's national security adviser for four years.

"Under your leadership, America is fighting and winning the war on terror," Ms Rice said as she formally accepted the post. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first black woman to serve as secretary of state.

Ms Rice, raised in the segregated South, is an accomplished pianist and Russian scholar who Mr Bush said was "taught that human dignity is a gift of God and that the ideals of America would overcome oppression".

Mr Bush asked the Senate for quick confirmation. "The nation needs her," he said.