WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (AFP) - The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Condoleezza Rice as US secretary of state, after blistering Democratic attacks over Iraq that heralded a fierce partisan debate on foreign policy in the coming years.
Rice, national security adviser to President George W. Bush and one of his closest aides, was cleared to replace Colin Powell as chief US diplomat by a vote of 85 to 13, with two abstentions.
The 50-year-old academic and trained concert pianist was to be quickly sworn in and take up her post as the second woman, and first black woman, to rise to the post of chief US diplomat.
The 13 "no" votes cast by Democrats were the most for a secretary of state since World War II, highlighting the party's divisions with the Republican administration over Iraq and the handling of the war on terror in general.
The Democrats used Rice's marathon confirmation hearings last week and eight hours of debate in the full Senate to signal their determined opposition to the policies she helped craft after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts railed against her role in a war he described as a "catastrophic failure, a quagmire," and Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia said flatly that her record did not merit a promotion.
"Her confirmation will almost certainly be viewed as another endorsement of the administration's unconstitutional doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, its bullying policies of unilateralism and its callous rejection of our long-standing allies," Byrd said.
Rice faced a daunting agenda, including the need to stabilize Iraq after Sunday's elections, repair strained US alliances when Bush tours Europe next month and rein in the nuclear arms ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
At a White House news conference just before the Senate confirmation vote, Bush effusively praised Rice as "an honorable, fine public servant who ... will be a great secretary of state."
"We look forward to working to make sure the Iraqis have got a democracy. We look forward to make sure that Afghanistan is as clear as possible from insurgents. We look forward to spreading freedom around the world," Bush said.
Leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate had hoped to confirm Rice last week, after Powell ceremoniously bade farewell to the State Department. But Democratic opposition delayed the vote until Wednesday.
After last November's election, which saw Bush re-elected and his Republican Party tighten its control over both houses of Congress, the Democrats were clearly pointing to the next legislative polls in November 2006.
California Senator Barbara Boxer, one of Rice's harshest critics, who accused her of misleading the US public about the Iraqi threat, rankled Republicans by using the nomination in a Democratic fundraising effort.
A letter sent out on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called on voters to use the elections "to put the brakes on four more years of misdirection in Iraq and reckless policies at home."
But other Democrats were less confrontational and expressed the hope that Rice could use her close ties with the president to moderate his policies and neutralize the influence of neoconservatives.
Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he voted for Rice "with some frustration and reservation" but also with a measure of hope that she would seize "a second chance."
Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut told the chamber that "partisanship should end at the nation's shores, particularly so when our nation is engaged in a war."
He called Rice's nomination an opportunity "for us to come together and say to one another and to the world ... that in the final analysis, Americans will stand together, shoulder to shoulder, against terrorism, against the enemy."

01/26/2005 18:29 GMT - AFP