Obama will keep Bush defence chief Robert Gates in job: report

U.S. president-elect Barack Obama will keep Defence Secretary Robert Gates in that job for at least a year, according to an official familiar with discussions between the two men.

Obama is expected to announce the selection of Gates and other members of a national security brain trust next week. Gates has served as President George W. Bush's defence chief for two years.

The moderate Republican with long-standing ties to the Bush family would fulfil an Obama pledge to include a Republican in his cabinet.

Retaining Gates provides stability for a stretched military fighting two wars during the turbulent changeover in administrations. Gates once said it was inconceivable that he would stay on past the close of Bush's term on Jan. 20.

But the 65-year-old former spymaster had recently turned mum in public on the circumstances under which he would stay, even briefly, in an Obama administration.

Keeping Gates might afford Obama a sort of extended transition, in which critical military issues are left in trusted hands while Obama focuses most intensely on the financial crisis.

Separately, a Democratic official said retired marine general James Jones is Obama's pick to be national security adviser.

Obama plans to name his foreign policy team after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

His pick for secretary of state is Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, though she has not formally accepted the job yet. It is unclear whether Jones has accepted the job, but the official said Obama has decided that the retired marine will be his national security adviser.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not authorized anybody to discuss the deliberations.