WASHINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate voted on Friday to approve Air Force General Michael Hayden as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    By a vote of 78-15, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Hayden, currently the principal deputy director of National Intelligence, to succeed Porter Goss, who resigned in early May.

    The White House had urged the Senate to approve the nomination by May 26, the day when Goss planned to leave the CIA.

    Hayden, born in March, born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered active military service in 1969. He was appointed director of the National Security Agency in 1999, and became deputy director of National Intelligence in April 2005. Enditem