U.S. envoy to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue Christopher Hill is expected to be named U.S. ambassador to Iraq, ABC News reported on Monday.

"The Obama administration has tapped Ambassador Chris Hill, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, to be Ambassador to Iraq," said the report, which has not been confirmed by both the White House and the State Department.

As Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Hill has worked for almost four years as the chief of the U.S. delegate to the so-called six-party talks, a multilateral mechanism on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

If the mission were nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate, Hill, the experienced diplomat, would replace Ryan Crocker in Baghdad to promote the U.S.-Iraq relationship based on the security pact signed between Baghdad and the Bush administration.

Under the pact, all the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq will withdraw from the country by Dec. 31, 2011. During his presidential campaign last autumn, Obama promised to withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months when he becomes the president.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2009)