WASHINGTON, Nov 9: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emerged strengthened within the US administration from this week's Republican election defeat, with the ouster of longtime adversary Donald Rumsfeld expected to boost the hand of diplomats over hawks in driving US foreign policy.

The nomination of a Rice confidant, former CIA chief Robert Gates, to replace Rumsfeld as secretary of defense was seen as a further sign that the 51-year-old will firmly hold the diplomatic reins during the Bush administration's final years.

Shortly after President George W. Bush announced Rumsfeld's resignation in the wake of midterm elections which saw the opposition Democrats seize control of Congress, Rice hailed the work of the man seen as the principal architect of the Iraq war.

“I have valued our working relationship and our many years of friendship,”she said in a carefully worded statement that stopped short of regretting the departure of an aggressive hawk.

Rice's spokesman warmly welcomed the nomination of Gates, with whom she had worked on the National Security Council under Bush's father, the elder president George Bush.—AFP