Mike Pompeo sworn in as secretary of state after Senate vote

Mike Pompeo was sworn in as U.S. President Donald Trump's secretary of state shortly after the Senate confirmed his nomination, putting the former CIA director in a pivotal role to handle U.S. foreign policy challenges such as North Korea and Iran.

Pompeo, a former army officer who was a Republicancongressman, is regarded as a Trump loyalist with hawkish world views.

He is already deeply involved in diplomacy. Trump sentPompeo to North Korea three weeks ago to meet with the country'sleader, Kim Jong-un, ahead of a summit with the U.S. presidentto address Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Senators voted 57-42 in favour of Pompeo, who had faced stiffresistance from Democrats worried about his reputation forhawkishness and past harsh statements about homosexuality andIslam.

Pompeo plans to travel to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel over the weekend after a stop in Brussels for a NATO meeting, the State Department said on Thursday.

He will be forced quickly to address a wide array ofother international challenges, including long conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Chinese expansionism in Asia andRussian assertiveness.

Washington is also working with European allies such asFrench President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor AngelaMerkel to decide whether to toughen an international nuclearagreement with Iran.

Pompeo narrowly avoided a historic rebuke by the Senate foreign relations committee.

He obviously has the president's support. That will be meaningful to people in the world.- Sen. Robert Menendez

He became one of Trump's closest advisers duringhis 15 months at the CIA, and faced stiff opposition from Democrats,who worried he might be too closely aligned with the president.

While in Congress, Pompeo was an outspoken opponent of theIran nuclear accord.

But he said during his confirmation hearing that he was opento fixing, rather than blowing apart, the pact, which the Westbelieves is key to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.

Hawkish views

Opponents also worried that Pompeo was too hawkish, and saidhis past remarks about homosexuals and Islam made him unsuitableto represent the United States on the world stage.

U.S. senators said Pompeo was expected to hit the groundrunning and head off almost immediately to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday.

Supporters said Pompeo did well during 15 months leading theCIA, and said the country badly needed a leader at the StateDepartment, where staffing has been slashed with many positionsunfilled since Trump became president in January 2017.

Trump picked the CIA's deputy director, Gina Haspel, toreplace Pompeo as head of the spy agency. If confirmed by theSenate, she would become the first woman to hold the post.

Pompeo avoided being the first nominee for secretary ofstate ever rejected by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee only when Republican Senator Rand Paul, who had vowed to opposehim, announced his support minutes before the committee voted onMonday after pressure from the party.

None of the 10 Democrats on the 21-member committeesupported the nominee.

Sen. Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the foreignrelations panel, was a vocal opponent of Pompeo's confirmation,but said he did not think the bruising confirmation fight wouldleave Pompeo wounded.

"He obviously has the president's support. That will bemeaningful to people in the world," Menendez said on Wednesday,drawing a contrast with his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, whooften seemed to differ from Trump.

The president abruptly fired Tillerson, aformer oil executive,lastmonth.