Clinton aide tipped for US Attorney General role

US President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly picked a former high-ranking Clinton administration aide to serve as the next attorney general, the country’s top law enforcement official.

Eric Holder, a former US attorney who served as the number two official in the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton, would be the nation’s first black attorney general.

An Obama official and two Democrats in touch with the transition team confirmed that Mr Holder was Mr Obama’s top choice, but the Obama official said the decision was not final.

Word of Mr Holder’s likely appointment surfaced while Washington was abuzz with reports that Senator Hillary Clinton, the former president’s wife, was at the top of Mr Obama’s list to be the next secretary of state, the top US diplomat.

Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton met at the president-elect’s transition headquarters in Chicago last week.

Earlier, the former first lady had been widely mentioned as a possible vice-presidential choice after

Mr Obama vanquished her in the lengthy and often bitter Democratic presidential primary.

Mr Obama, who ran for president on a platform of change, was raising eyebrows with his heavy focus on officials from the former Clinton administration in his transition team and his consideration of them for his Cabinet.

He has already named Rahm Emanuel, a key Democrat in Congress and a top White House official under Clinton, to serve as his chief of staff.