WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is considering Susan Rice to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of State, but on Tuesday she faced a strong resistance from Republican senators.

Republicans are also resisting President Obama’s plan to promote acting CIA Director Michael Morell.

The Republicans want both officials to disclose how the Obama administration responded to the attacks on a US diplomatic outpost in Libya in September this year.

The US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in this attack. Ambassador Rice told reporters after the incident that those who attacked the mission were protesting against an anti-Islam video produced in the United States. But later intelligence leaks to the US media showed that there was no protest.

The attack was planned by terrorists from an Al Qaeda affiliate to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary. President Obama has defended Ms Rice, who also was a top foreign policy adviser in the Clinton administration.

Mr Morell was the deputy of former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus who had to resign earlier this month after a sex scandal. He is also facing pressure from US lawmakers to tell Congress what actually happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11.The Republicans, however, are focusing on Ambassador Rice because the Obama administration has indicated that the president wants her to replace Secretary Clinton who wants to retire soon.

Since Ambassador Rice’s statement on Libya has made her controversial, the Republicans see this as a good opportunity to get even with President Obama who comfortably defeated a Republican candidate in the Nov. 6 election. It will be a major embarrassment for the President if Congress rejects his nominee for such a key post.

Although Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, which confirms presidential nominees. But a secretary of state rejected by Republican lawmakers will be considered too controversial to represent America as its chief diplomat.

Ambassador Rice and Mr Morell met three key Republican senators – John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayottee – on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in an effort to persuade them to back their expected nomination.

“The bottom line is that I'm more disturbed than I was before ... about how four Americans died in Benghazi but Ambassador Rice does not to do justice to the reality at the time,” Senator Graham told reporters after meeting Ms Rice.