Obama picks former Clinton aide Panetta for CIA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Leon Panetta, who was White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, to lead the CIA, Democratic officials said on Monday.

The choice of Panetta for Central Intelligence Agency director was one of the last major nominations for the incoming Obama administration, which takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20.

Outside of his stint in the White House, where he served between 1994 and 1997, Panetta has relatively little experience in national security matters.

He was a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that was charged with assessing a way to end the Iraq war. Its recommendations for a phased troop withdrawal were largely ignored by the Bush administration, which chose to increase the U.S. military presence there instead.

Before joining the Clinton administration, Panetta was a congressman between 1977 and 1993, where he focussed on budget, nutrition and environmental issues.

After leaving the White House, he has directed a public policy centre at California State University, Monterey and served in other positions within California's state university system. He has also sat on a number of corporate and nonprofit boards.