News reports say President Barack Obama will nominate Senator John Kerry to be the next U.S. secretary of state.

Mr. Obama is expected to announce the selection later Friday.

Hillary Clinton has served as the top U.S. diplomat since January 2009, when Mr. Obama took office, but she has said she will astep down early in the New Year.

Kerry, a 69-year-old Massachusetts Democrat, is a Vietnam War veteran who ran for president in 2004, losing that bid to President George W. Bush.