FACTBOX: Obama's Cabinet faces big challenges

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's Cabinet faces historic challenges that include ending a recession, managing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and fulfilling promises to expand health care and move the U.S. toward energy independence.

Obama still needs to name candidates to fill two seats in what will be his 15-member Cabinet -- the heads of the Commerce Department and the Department of Health and Human Services -- after his initial nominees withdrew.

Here is a look at some of his key Cabinet members:

* Timothy Geithner, confirmed as treasury secretary by a vote of 60-34 on January 26; he's taking a lead role in trying to revive the economy and rescue banks. A key ally is Lawrence Summers, a non-Cabinet member who heads Obama's National Economic Council. Geithner previously served as head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

* Former Senator Hillary Clinton, confirmed on a 94-2 vote on January 21 as secretary of state; the wife of former President Bill Clinton, she was embraced as a star on her recent one-week Asia tour where she vowed to bolster U.S. relations around the globe in wake of the unpopular Bush administration.

* Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Obama decided to keep Republican President George W. Bush's defense chief at the Pentagon. Gates will help Obama increase U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan and reduce them in Iraq.

* Janet Napolitano was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security without dissent on January 20, the day Obama became president. A former governor of Arizona, her job is to help protect the United States against another September 11-type attack.

* Steven Chu was confirmed unanimously as secretary of the Energy Department on January 20. A physics Nobel laureate, Chu previously headed Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Obama's wants Chu to use his expertise to make the nation more energy efficient.

* Former Republican U.S. Representative Ray LaHood of Illinois was unanimously confirmed on January 22 as secretary of the Transportation Department. He will help decide how to spend funds from the $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at rebuilding roads and bridges and has already floated new ideas on taxing gasoline consumption.

* Hilda Solis is expected to be confirmed as labor secretary on Tuesday as Obama prepared to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress. A member of the House of Representatives since 2000, she has promised that as labor secretary she will help combat the recession by expanding federal job training. As a member of Congress, she has backed legislation to make it easier for unions to organize at the workplace.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro in Washington; editing by )