US President George W. Bush has picked Fox News Radio host Tony Snow as his new White House press secretary and is expected to announce the choice as early as today, a Republican official said last night.
Mr Snow will replace Scott McClellan, who announced his resignation last week as part of a staff shake-up engineered by new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten aimed at reviving Bush's presidency.
Sources familiar with the situation said Mr Snow wrestled with the decision for several days on whether to take the grueling job.
A former speechwriter for former President George Bush, he was treated for colon cancer last year. Fox News said on its website Mr Snow was given a clean bill of health by his oncologist yesterday, following a CAT scan and other tests that were undertaken last Thursday.
He was said to have been waiting for the all-clear from his doctors before accepting the job. A conservative pundit, Mr Snow (50) has been host of Fox News Radio's "The Tony Snow Show" and for a time was anchor of the "Fox News Sunday" program.
The Washington Post said he decided to accept after top officials assured him he would not be just a spokesman but an active participant in administration policy debates.
The Post quoted sources as saying Mr Snow views himself as well-positioned to ease the tensions between the Bush White House and the press corps because he understands both politics and journalism.
Mr Bolten has embarked on a shake-up of Mr Bush's senior staff in a drive to breathe new life into the presidency and rebound from job approval ratings that, according to a CNN poll, have dipped to an all-time low of 32 per cent.