“It is a great opportunity, and an expression of confidence by President Bush, to represent my country here,” said Molly Bordonaro, ambassador-designate of the United States to Malta yesterday on her arrival in Malta.

“I am looking forward to continue the excellent work carried out by my predecessors and will continue working to keep on strengthening the relationship between the US and Malta,” she added.

Mrs Bordonaro expressed her pleasure in arriving in Malta “I am extremely excited that I will be working here for the next few years,” she said.

She said that her husband’s family is from Sicily and she is therefore familiar with this part of the Mediterranean.

Mrs Bordonaro asked the Maltese to think of the victims of hurricane Katrina – one of the worst national disasters of modern history and say a prayer for those involved.

She was nominated by President George W. Bush to be United States Ambassador to Malta in May and was confirmed by the US Senate in June.

Ms Bordonaro was a principal in the Portland office of the Gallatin Group, a leading public affairs strategy and strategic communications firm.

She was a member of the US Congress’s Commission on the Advancement of Women in Science and Technology, and served as Pacific states chair for the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign in 2000 and as the northwest regional chair in 2004.

Ms Bordonaro was the senior legislative director for the American Legislative Exchange Council in Washington D.C. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado. She and her husband Matthew have three children.