Senate confirms Leon Panetta to head CIA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Leon Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, despite early criticism that the former senior White House aide lacks experience on intelligence matters.

Panetta, a White House chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton and former California congressman, was confirmed on a voice vote with no debate.

Panetta will succeed Michael Hayden.

President Barack Obama named Panetta, an intelligence outsider, to head the spy agency two weeks before the new administration took office.

The nomination raised eyebrows in Washington, where officials are more accustomed to intelligence professionals at the helm of the spy agency.

In Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination, Panetta broke with outgoing CIA Director Michael Hayden to support a congressional inquiry into the agency's detention and interrogation program launched after the September 11 attacks.

Panetta said the Senate Intelligence Committee would be an appropriate place for an inquiry "to learn lessons from what happened" in the program, and said he would do everything he could to cooperate.

Panetta, 70, was White House budget director under Clinton before becoming his chief of staff, where he had access to presidential intelligence briefings. He also served on the bipartisan Iraq Study Group established by Congress in 2006 to assess Iraq war policy options.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen; editing by Todd Eastham)