Former governor of Delaware to serve in Rome.

US president Joe Biden has nominated Jack Markell as Washington's new ambassador to Italy, filling a post left vacant for more than two years, according to Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Markell, 62, will come to Rome after serving as US ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based role he has held since January 2022.

In 2021 Markell was the White House coordinator of Operation Allies Refuge which helped to evacuate Afghan civilians after the US military withdrew from Afghanistan.

An adviser and close friend of President Biden, Markell is a member of the Democratic Party and served two terms as governor of Delaware from 2009 to 2017.

Born in Newark in 1960, Markell is married to Carla Smathers with whom he has two children in their twenties.

Markell's predecessor in Rome, Lewis Eisenberg, nominated by former US president Donald Trump, completed his mandate in January 2021.

During a visit to Rome last summer, the then speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi sparked speculation that she was set to become American ambassador to Italy, however the rumours were dismissed as "utter nonsense" by her office.