Gates Will Stay Through 2010

The new year won't bring a change at the top in the Defense Department. Robert Gates will stay on through on 2010, says a Pentagon spokesman. He and President Obama met before Christmas and agreed that the Bush holdover will remain for "at least another year," reports Reuters. The two will revisit the issue later this year.

"For all intents and purposes their original agreement still stands," says the spokesman. Gates "serves at the pleasure of the president indefinitely and he is honored to do so, though he certainly looks forward to one day retiring to his family home in the Pacific Northwest. " (More Robert Gates stories.)