(WASHINGTON) - If US president-elect Barack Obama names Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, it will be "very well taken" in Europe, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Friday.

"It would be very well taken, if it were the case," Solana told reporters during a visit to Washington where he met with Obama representative Madeleine Albright.

"She is a strong personality. She is an appropriate person, capable, with experience, well known. I think it would be very well taken by the majority of people," Solana said.

An aide to Obama said the president-elect is "on track" to nominate his former bitter foe to the prize post of secretary of state after next week's Thanksgiving holiday.

The nomination, the subject of intense speculation since Clinton flew to Chicago to meet Obama last week, moved forward after financial disclosure issues were worked out with her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

There will be no formal announcement before the holiday break which starts on Thursday November 27, the Obama aide said on condition of anonymity, adding the president-elect was still firming up his national security line-up.

New York Senator Clinton and Obama, who slugged it out during an acrimonious six-month Democratic primary campaign, were having substantive discussions about her future role, the aide said.

Signs the Clinton nomination could be firming up followed conflicting reports, some suggesting the Obama team was frustrated with the Clinton camp, others saying Clinton was agonizing over whether to give up her Senate seat.

But details of the nominating process have been tightly held by both sides and it was unclear if any or all of the unnamed sources were speaking with authority for the two protagonists.

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