Barack Obama looks to Kennedy family

The Kennedy family is set to play a part in Barack Obama's White House administration. The Daily Telegraph claims the President-elect may enlist the services of not one but two members of the clan. JFK's daughter Caroline Kennedy (pictured), it reports, is a contender for the post of US Ambassador to the United Nations, while her cousin Robert F Kennedy Jnr, the son of Robert Kennedy, is said to be on the shortlist to head up the Environment and Protection Agency.

If Caroline Kennedy doesn't get a job it won't be for want of trying. She was the first of the Kennedys to openly declare her support for Illinois senator, effectively giving him the sheen of a Kennedy endorsement. She said of Obama earlier this year: "I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president, not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

These speculations come as Obama confirms his first appointments. As reported here last week, the famously foul-mouthed Congressman Rahm Emanuel, a former aide to President Clinton, has accepted the post of White House Chief of Staff. And Washington sources claim that Senator John Kerry, the Democratic Presidential nominee in 2004, is being considered to replace Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State while Colin Powell, her predecessor, is seen as a possible Pentagon chief or Education Secretary.