Obama nominates new chief of US Pacific Command

US President Barack Obamahas nominated a four-star admiral who played a key role in the Libya air war asthe new chief of the military's vast Pacific Command, the Pentagon has said

If confirmed by theSenate, Admiral Samuel Locklear would oversee more than 300,000 service membersand a fleet of aircraft and warships over an area spanning the west coast of theUnited States to the western border of India.

Locklear, who currentlyoversees US naval forces in Europe and Africa and leads NATO's Joint ForcesCommand in Naples, helped shape the allied air campaign in Libya that endedwith the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

As chief of PacificCommand, based in Hawaii, the admiral will likely be heavily focused on China'sgrowing economic and military might as well as the threat posed by North Korea,whose longtime leader Kim Jong-Il died this month.

The nomination for a newPACOM commander comes after a year in which the Obama administration hasstressed the strategic importance of the Asia-Pacific region and vowed to expandthe American military's presence, announcing the deployment of up to 2,500 USMarines in Australia.