WASHINGTON: US President-elect Barack Obama yesterday officially introduced the members of his national security team, including former Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state. By doing so, Obama — inspired by his hero Abraham Lincoln — has created a “team of rivals” in his Cabinet.

In an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe, Obama’s advisers say he has worked hard to choose an experienced team to advise him on foreign and national security when he takes office on Jan. 20.

Obama’s foreign policy team under Clinton is thought to reassure the more hawkish elements in the United States, but may well disappoint those who wanted a more radical shift.

Obama said Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed to remain in office.

The president-elect reiterated his intention to announce a new mission as soon as he takes office to end the war in Iraq. “We will also ensure that we have the strategy — and resources — to succeed against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban,” he said. “And going forward, we will continue to make the investments necessary to strengthen our military and increase our ground forces to defeat the threats of the 21st century.”

Obama also announced that retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones — a former top commander of NATO and US forces in Europe — would be his national security adviser. Jones is fluent in French and has more than four decades of military experience. A former Marine commandant, he is well known for his engaging personality and has not aligned himself with either the Democratic or Republican party.

At the morning news conference in Chicago, Obama said his team “must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: Our military and diplomacy, our intelligence and law enforcement, our economy and the power of our moral example.”

“The team that we have assembled is uniquely suited to do just that,” he said, as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage. “They share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the world.”

Obama, who describes his foreign policy approach as pragmatic, has said he believes national security should be nonpartisan and has often complimented the national security approach of President George Bush Sr., a moderate Republican.

Having said that, Clinton is widely seen as being on the more hawkish side of the Democratic party. As a senator, she voted in favor of the resolution authorizing war against Iraq, a vote she cast “with conviction,” she said.

During the primaries, Obama criticized Clinton’s judgment for her Senate vote to authorize the Iraq war. But like many other Democrats who initially backed the war, she quickly became a critic and agrees with Obama on the need for a phased troop withdrawal.

She is a staunch supporter of Israel and a fierce critic of Iran. “Israel’s right to exist, and exist in safety and peace, must never be called into question,” she has said. “We should not, cannot, must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons.”

Iran has said it does not intend to build or acquire nuclear weapons. How far she will countenance the kind of direct diplomacy with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that her rival urged during the campaign remains to be seen.

Obama also named former Clinton administration Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder as attorney general, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as the secretary of Homeland Security, and Susan Rice as his ambassador to the United Nations, the officials said. Obama has reportedly settled on former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health and human services, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be commerce secretary, but those announcements have yet to be made.

With these picks, Obama will have named more than a third of his Cabinet six weeks before he is inaugurated as the nation’s 44th president. The president-elect unveiled his economic team last week, tapping New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as his treasury secretary and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as director of the National Economic Council. “Last week, we were reminded of this threat once again when terrorists took the lives of six Americans among nearly 200 victims in Mumbai. In the world we seek, there is no place for those who kill innocent civilians to advance hateful extremism,” Obama said.

“To succeed, we must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: Our military and diplomacy; our intelligence and law enforcement; our economy and the power of our moral example. The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that.”

Obama appears to be having a harder time choosing his top intelligence posts, an indication of the tough choices facing the president-elect as he considers whether to retain the Bush administration’s controversial interrogation and surveillance policies.

Officials say the Obama team is still evaluating candidates to run the Central Intelligence Agency. He had planned to tap 25-year CIA veteran John Brennan to run the agency, but he took himself out of the running late last week after liberal elements of the Democratic Party revolted.

Critics of Brennan said he was tainted by his senior role at the CIA when the Bush administration’s interrogation program was developed and implemented. Brennan and some of his former colleagues said he didn’t play a major decision-making role and had spoken out internally against tactics such as waterboarding, or simulated drowning, which were employed in the program and are widely thought to constitute torture.