The White House wants a high quality product" in all vettings of ambassadorial nominees.

Holding a 10-8 majority in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (tasked with vetting ambassadorial nominees), the Republican leadership hoped to send Bolton's nomination to the full Senate with a positive recommendation.

The spokesman's comments came after Mr. Weld asserted on a television program that it was "not the American way" for a single senator to bar a hearing for an ambassadorial nominee.

For two months, Mr. Helms held up confirmation of all ambassadorial nominees in a dispute with the Administration on his plan to reorganize the State Department.

Mr. Helms once famously held up 43 ambassadorial nominees in order to protest various State Department policies he disagreed with.

He also routinely holds foreign policy initiatives hostage, puts ambassadorial nominees in limbo, paralyzes Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings and undercuts treaties.

Under the agreement, Senator Helms would now allow the full Senate to vote on 15 ambassadorial nominees to countries like Bosnia, Panama, Zaire and Qatar.

Mr. Thiessen declined to identify other senators who had prevented ambassadorial nominees from having a hearing.

The Nigerian senate screened 88 ambassadorial nominees.

The President Goodluck Jonathan asked the Nigerian senate to confirm the ambassadors in line with Section 171(1)(c) of the Constitution, of which 56 are career ambassadorial nominees and 32 are non-career.