US President Barack Obama has announced plans to fill senior foreign policy positions dealing with international organizations as well as European and Eurasian affairs.

The White House said Obama planned to name Phil Gordon as assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs and Esther Brimmer as assistant secretary for international organizations.

Obama also intended to appoint Melanne Verveer, an aide in former president Bill Clinton's administration, as ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, a new post, according to a White House statement.

All three posts have to be approved by the Senate.

Gordon would replace Dan Fried, who oversaw the Bush administration's negotiations to deploy a US missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland — opposed by Russia — as well as arms control talks with Moscow.

Gordon has for the last eight years worked on US foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy research institute.

He was director for European affairs at the National Security Council under president Bill Clinton, the White House statement added.

He has held other posts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France and Singapore, and the German Society for Foreign Affairs in Bonn.

Brimmer is to replace Kristen Silverberg, whom The Washington Post said was appointed to help the United States prevail in the campaign against terrorism partly by improving the US image overseas.

Brimmer has been the deputy director and director of research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.

A specialist in transatlantic political and security affairs, Brimmer was a member of the office of policy planning at the State Department in 1999 and 2000.

She worked on the European Union, Western Europe, the United Nations and multilateral security issues.

Brimmer also served on the US delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights from 1995 to 2000.

Verveer is co-founder, chair and co chief executive officer of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international nonprofit that invests in emerging women leaders, the White House statement said.

Verveer formerly worked as assistant to president Clinton, who served from 1993 to 2001, and as chief of staff to the first lady, Hillary Clinton.

AFP