Barack Obama has announced that Rahm Emanuel, a former official in Bill Clinton's administration, has accepted his offer to become White House chief of staff.
"I announce this appointment first because the chief of staff is central to the ability of a president and administration to accomplish an agenda," said the US president-elect on Thursday.
"And no one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel."
The move to appoint Emanuel, regarded among the Washington political elite as a master strategist, is Obama's first political act since he swept to victory in the presidential election on Tuesday.
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Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's senior Washington correspondent, said Emanuel was seen as a tough, hard nosed and highly partisan political operative known for his fiery temper with strong links to Israel.
He is the son of a Jerusalem-born doctor who was active in an underground Zionist organisation that fought the British in Palestine before the founding of Israel.
As an adviser to former president Clinton, Emanuel was responsible for helping to orchestrate the 1993 Oslo peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
Emanuel who, like Obama, is from Chicago, helped mastermind the Democrats' capture of the House of Representatives from the Republicans two years ago.