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US President Barack Obama has named a new ambassador to Libya, six months after the previous US envoy was killed in an attack by fighters in Benghazi.
The announcement on Wednesday that career diplomat Deborah Jones is set to replace slain ambassador, Chris Stevens, came as the Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was in Washington for talks with senior officials.
Jones, who will have to be confirmed by Senate, carries a huge emotional weight into her new post with the scars of the September attack on the US mission in Benghazi still raw in the American psyche.
Stevens was killed along with three other American staff during a heavily-armed attack on the Benghazi compound and a nearby annex. He was the first ambassador to be killed on duty since the late 1970s.
Zeidan, who is on his first official visit to Washington, met on Wednesday Obama who joined the Libyan leader's talks at the White House with National Security Advisor Tom Donilon.
Despite a long investigation by both Libyan authorities and the FBI, no one has been charged in the Benghazi attack.
Zeidan pledged, however, as he met later Secretary of State John Kerry that the Libyan government will "work with the United States of America in order to find out who were behind the assault.
"Who killed this dear friend and his colleagues and they must be brought to trial," Zeidan said, speaking through a translator. "We are keen on reaching the truth and to see that justice is achieved."
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