A transition official for the incoming Obama administration tells The Associated Press and the New York Times that the president-elect has asked former Clinton aide Leon Panetta to be CIA director.

Democratic officials also said that Obama has tapped retired Adm. Dennis Blair for National Intelligence Director.

The choice of Panetta may raise some eyebrows, since he has no experience in the intelligence world. An Obama transition official and another Democrat disclosed his nomination on a condition of anonymity since it was not yet public.

Panetta served for a time as Clinton's chief of staff. He has held other high-level federal posts, including director of the Office of Management and Budget. He was a Representative from California in the House from 1976 to 1993.

Panetta served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that released a report at the end of 2006 with dozens of recommendations for the reversing course in the Iraq war.

He currently directs, with his wife Sylvia, the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. He helped establish university on the site of the former U.S. Army base, Fort Ord.

Blair, a native of Maine, is a 6th generation naval officer who currently teaches strategic studies and leadership at Dickinson College and the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

Blair was chief of the U.S. Pacific Command during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He is also a China expert, and he was an associate director for military support at the CIA.