Powell says foreign service needs more minorities

Colin Powell, President-elect Bush's choice to be Secretary of State, said this week that the State Department should work to increase the number of minorities in the foreign service.

"America overseas should look like America at home," Powell said at State Department ceremony Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report. The ceremony was designed to draw students from mostly African-American Howard University into the foreign service.

Powell is the first black American to be nominated to be Secretary of State.

Of the 8,971 people currently in the foreign service, 505 are black and 390 are Hispanic, the AP reported. More than 25 percent are women.