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WASHINGTON - Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's mentor in foreign-policy matters and his choice as a new secretary of state, is far closer to Bush in her worldview than the departing Colin Powell was.
Rice, whom Bush nominated Tuesday, would become the first black woman to be secretary of state if the Senate confirms her appointment.
Many observers saw her nomination as a move by the president to tighten his control over the national security apparatus, which during his first term saw titanic policy battles between the State Department and the CIA on one hand, and the Pentagon and Vice President Dick Cheney's office on the other.
Rice, 50, an accomplished classical pianist and child of segregated Alabama, does not approach Powell's stratospheric approval ratings at home and abroad. But she unquestionably speaks for the president. Some foreign leaders had come to doubt the moderate Powell's influence in Bush's hawkish White House.
During an appearance Tuesday in the Roosevelt Room, Bush also announced that Rice's deputy, Stephen Hadley, would replace her as national security adviser. Hadley, a Yale Law School graduate and studious behind-the-scenes player, is close to the neoconservatives in Cheney's office and the Defense Department, who favor an activist foreign policy backed by military force.
The president said Rice ''will take office at a critical time for our country.'' He cited the war on terrorism, the push for democratic reforms in the Middle East and new hopes of progress in the Arab-Israeli conflict after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Rice, who began her career as a specialist on the Soviet Union and arms control, also will have the lead in trying to stabilize Iraq; tackling Iran's and North Korea's seemingly unstoppable nuclear ambitions; repairing strained relations with much of Europe; and handling an increasingly confident and powerful China.
Rice appears to face no hurdle to her confirmation.