Barack Obama, president-elect, on Sunday announced his nomination for office of a general who clashed with the Bush administration over the Iraq war, and outlined some of the main struts of his foreign policy plans.

In nominating Eric Shinseki for the post of veterans affairs, Mr Obama brings back to the public arena a former army chief of staff who called on the US to provide more troops for Iraq, only to be criticised by Donald Rumsfeld, then secretary of defence, and to retire soon afterwards.