Burns nominated as deputy secretary of state

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday appointed William Burns, the U.S. point man on Iran's nuclear ambitions, as deputy secretary of state to replace outgoing James Steinberg, the White House said.

In its nomination sent to the Senate, the White House said, "William J. Burns, of Maryland, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service with the Personal Rank of Career Ambassador, to be Deputy Secretary of State, vice James Braidy Steinberg."

Burns will assume the No. 2 post at the State Department as soon as he gets through a Senate confirmation hearing soon to be scheduled.

Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, has served as assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs and ambassador to Jordan and Russia.

Steinberg, said to have been involved deeply in North Korea, China and other Asian issues, will move on to head the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in New York.

The nomination of Burns, an Arabic-speaking expert on the Middle East, comes amid heightening tensions in North Africa and the Middle East due to popular uprisings that toppled decades-old authoritarian regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, put Libya into a civil war and created chaos in several other countries.

Amid fears of U.S. involvement in another costly war, the Obama administration appears ready to step back from its military involvement in Libya as the North African state is stuck in a civil war with leader Muammar Qaddafi strongly resisting allied bombings. (Yonhap)