The US State Department downplayed on Friday a report by the Washington Post that former US secretary of state Colin Powell played a role in the stalled confirmation process of John Bolton to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations.

"Secretary Powell is answering requests for information the way that we do, the way that any American citizen would," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said at a news briefing.

When asked if Powell came to the conclusion that Bolton would be unfit for the post, Ereli said: "I do not know what conclusion Secretary Powell came to."

According to the Washington Post report, Powell is emerging as a behind-the-scenes player in the battle over John Bolton's nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations.

Powell spoke in recent days with Lincoln Chafee and Chuck Hagel, two Republican senators in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who have raised concerns about Bolton's nomination, and privately told them that Bolton is a smart but very problematic government official, the report said, quoting Republican sources.

The report noted that Powell did not sign a letter from seven other former US secretaries of state or defense supporting Bolton, and his former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson recently told the New York Times that Bolton would be an "abysmal ambassador."

Bolton served under Powell as his undersecretary of state for arms control and the two were known to have had serious clashes.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed on Tuesday a vote on John Bolton's nomination to next month. The decision showed the Democrats in the committee successfully blocked the Republicans who sought to push Bolton through as the showdown vote was scheduled on Tuesday.

Bolton has been a harsh critic of the United Nations bureaucracy and a provocative choice to the United Nations.

Moreover, Bolton has been accused of being a bully with a history of seeking to remove those who disagree with him.

Source: Xinhua