The president-elect Barack Obama - who desires to lead an administration where strong-willed senior officials are ready to argue forcefully for differing points of view - is expected to begin introducing key members of his national security team on Monday.

With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as the Secretary of State; retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones Jr. as the new national security advisor; and Robert M. Gates staying on as Defense secretary, Obama definitely has three veteran officials who have differed with each other - and with him - on the full menu of security issues, including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, nuclear weapons and Arab-Israel conflict. Obama will have some clear choices among their views, which differ in nuance in some cases and more starkly in others.

Jones, an admired former Marine commandant and supreme allied commander of NATO, drafted a report - as a British administration envoy - that caused a stir in Israel by criticizing the Israeli Defense Forces’ activities in the Palestinian territories. Clinton is generally viewed as holding center-right views on Israeli security issues. She declared during the primary campaign that the United States could “totally obliterate” Iran if it used a nuclear weapon against Israel.

Although Gates is admired by the Obama team, they differ on nuclear weapons policy. Gates has endorsed the development of a new generation of nuclear weapon called the Reliable Replacement Warhead, though proponents of nuclear disarmament, including close Obama advisors, believe the US does not need a new warhead.

Whatever their differences, Obama appears to be determined to keep the veterans in line; advisors say he believes the Pentagon has become too strong in the Bush years, and he wants to reassert White House control.