While some see Gates's experience in dealing with conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan as an advantage to a fledgling administration, others believe such a move would ultimately betray the incoming Democratic president's message of change and his promise to end the war in Iraq.

So far the Obama transition team has remained tight-lipped and no announcements are expected any time soon as the president-elect huddles in Chicago with his top advisors preparing for his January 20 inauguration.

Gates, who is conveniently abroad on a foreign visit, is also playing his cards close to his chest.

Asked during a trip to Estonia on Wednesday if he had had any discussions with Obama's team, he smiled mischievously and said: "I have nothing new to say on the subject."

His future has been a subject of intense speculation since a top Obama foreign policy adviser, Richard Danzig, said last month that Gates had been a good defense secretary and "would be a better one in an Obama administration."

According to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Obama is leaning towards keeping Gates in office for at least a year even though other names have been thrown into the mix such as Danzig himself, or John Hamre, former assistant secretary for defense under then president Bill Clinton.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has said he had no qualms about having Gates in the cabinet and stressed the importance of a "good transition there."

"Why wouldn't we want to keep him? He's never been a registered Republican," Reid told CNN on Sunday.

Gates, 65, has made no bones about the fact that he is looking forward to retiring back to his home in Washington state once his term is over, and says he even has a calendar on his desk counting down the days to January 20.

But close colleagues said that he would not refuse to stay on, out of a sense of civic duty, if Obama asks him to.

"He learned never to say never," said Pentagon spokesmen Geoff Morrell.

Seen as an open, impartial official with an eye for detail, Gates has occupied the post since taking over from the controversial Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned following the Republican rout in the 2006 Congressional elections.

Gates shares Obama's belief that more troops need to be sent to Afghanistan to fight the war on terror, and has also called for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay US military camp in Cuba.

But he is opposed to setting a rigid timetable for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. Obama has said he wants most US troops to return home within 16 months, although he said any withdrawal would depend on conditions on the ground.

Anti-war groups remain staunchly opposed to prolonging Gates's term.

"Any individual policymaker from the Bush administration is really not interesting to us at all. I just don't trust the same old guard," said Gael Murphy, co-founder of the pacifist group CodePink.

"We would like a fresh perspective, fresh faces, fresh thinking, somebody like (Senator Chuck) Hagel, who was strongly against the war, who has a military experience, who is a credible voice.

"Obama's victory is seen by many as as mandate for change ... Not exactly conducive to keeping the same person in charge of the Pentagon who is overseeing the Bush administration's unpopular foreign policy," she added.

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