Panetta was a surprise pick for the post, with no experience in the intelligence world. An Obama transition official and another Democrat disclosed his nomination on a condition of anonymity, since it was not yet public.

Panetta was director of the Office of Management and Budget and a long-time congressman from California.

He served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that released a report at the end of 2006 with dozens of recommendations for reversing course in the Iraq war.

Panetta currently directs, with his wife Sylvia, the Leon and Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay, a university he helped establish on the site of the former US Army base, Fort Ord.