Eric Holder was confirmed on Monday at the Senate as the first African-American attorney general in the United States.

By voting 75 to 21, the Senate turned on the green light to President Barack Obama's choice for the Justice Department chief.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said that the confirmation was a fulfillment of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that everyone should be judged by the content of their character.

Holder, a former federal prosecutor and deputy attorney general, is the only one African-American official enrolled into Obama's cabinet. Three other black people serve the new administration as senior officials, including Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN.

The confirmation came after a longtime debate in the Senate since some Republican lawmakers concerned about his insufficient commitment to anti-terror war and support for gun control.

Holder is expected to regain public trust on the Justice Department which was criticized for allowing torture in the interrogation of terrorist suspects.

He will also have to fulfill Obama's demand for review of all cases of Guantanamo detainees to close the controversial prison within one year.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2009)