US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed three of his children and a son-in-law to his transition team, and demoted the former head Chris Christie.
Donald Trump's children, from left, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are on the transition team's executive committee. Photo: AFP
Mr Trump put Mike Pence, the vice-president-elect and former US lawmaker with deep Washington ties, in charge of the process.
Daughter Ivanka, sons Eric and Donald Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner will help oversee the transition.
Mr Christie, the New Jersey governor marred by scandal after two of his aides were convicted in a political revenge plot, will serve on the six vice-chair posts.
He will join Dr Ben Carson, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, retired Lt Gen Michael Flynn, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and US Senator Jeff Sessions as the vice chairs of the transition effort.
Four of the 16-member executive committee are members of Mr Trump's family.
Donald Trump, right, and Indiana Governor Mike Pence at a campaign event. Photo: AFP
The New York Times, citing several sources close to the transition team, said Mr Trump told advisers he wanted to use Mr Pence's contacts to move the transition process along.
Aides in the real-estate mogul's Trump Tower in New York City were beginning the task of prioritising policy changes and considering Cabinet picks and other candidates for the 4000 positions Mr Trump will need to fill shortly after he takes the reins of the White House.
If leaks to the media are accurate, names being considered for Mr Trump's administration include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for Secretary of State, Dr Ben Carson for education secretary, former general Michael Flynn for Secretary of Defence and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for Attorney General.
Trump climate pledges 'catastrophic'
Meanwhile, France's Environment Minister Segolene Royal, while defending the 2015 Paris climate agreement she helped construct, said Mr Trump's campaign pledge to drop out of world cooperation on slowing climate change would be "absolutely catastrophic" and weaken the United States.
However, she said she believed Mr Trump might change tack once he took office.
"I dare to believe that such things are campaign promises to please a certain electorate which has not understood that global warming is a reality," she said at a meeting of 200 nations in Marrakesh, Morocco, on actions to limit warming.
Mr Trump has called global warming a hoax, wants to cancel the Paris Agreement and halt all US funding of UN global warming programmes.
- BBC / Reuters
