The Democrat nominated former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as his secretary of agriculture, putting the fervent advocate of corn-based ethanol in charge of the nation's much-criticized 300-billion-dollar farm spending.

Colorado Senator Ken Salazar was tapped to be secretary of the interior, to take over a scandal-tainted department that oversees an uneasy balance between conservation and exploitation of federal lands.

"Together they will serve as guardians of the American landscape on which the health of our economy and the well-being of our families so heavily depends," Obama told a news conference.

"It's time for a new kind of leadership in Washington that's committed to using our lands in a responsible way to benefit all our families," he said, pledging the two departments would no longer be in hock to big business.

"That means ensuring that even as we are promoting development where it makes sense, we are also fulfilling our obligation to protect our national treasures."

Recent investigations have uncovered cash and sexual favors extended to interior department managers by oil companies, and political meddling against scientific recommendations on the listing of endangered species.

Obama's cabinet line-up is now largely complete as he prepares to leave this weekend for an end-of-year break in Hawaii, where he is expected to attended a funeral service for his late grandmother.

Still to come are his selections for labor, transportation, the US trade representative, and his intelligence chief.

President George W. Bush's administration meanwhile said it was briefing Obama and his national security team on contingency plans in case of an international crisis after his January 20 inauguration.

"We want to provide them, especially in the first few weeks, the basis for which they can have some information to make their decisions," White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"This is a menu of contingencies and possible options. It is not exhaustive, it's not exclusive, and it's not prescriptive," he said.

Johndroe confirmed a report in The New York Times that the planning covers several scenarios including a North Korean nuclear explosion, a cyber-attack on US computer systems, a terrorist strike on a US site overseas, or instability in the Middle East.

Johndroe also said the administration is working to "make sure career officials are in place and ready to respond to a crisis should one occur early on in the next administration before appointees are in place."

The plans were recommended by the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001 attacks, and Bush has been generally praised for instigating an unparalleled level of wartime transition from his administration to Obama's.

Shortly before the November 4 election, Obama's running mate Joseph Biden said "it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama the way it tested (slain president) John F. Kennedy."

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is to keep his job in the Obama administration, warned on Saturday that US adversaries would be "sorely mistaken" to challenge Barack Obama's resolve in the oil-rich Gulf.

"Anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to 'test' the new administration would be sorely mistaken," he told a security conference in the Bahraini capital Manama that was shunned by Iran.

"The president-elect and his team, myself included, will be ready to defend the interests of the United States, and our friends and allies, the moment he takes office on January 20," he said.

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