A Thoroughly Modern Foreign Secretary

Britain's new Foreign Sectary, David Miliband, right, arrives at 10 Downing Street, with Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith for the first cabinet meeting under new Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Thursday, June 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Simon Dawson) (Simon Dawson - AP)

LONDON -- David Miliband, Britain's new foreign secretary, became the first British Cabinet minister to post a blog last year _ though his entries are often thick with technical jargon.

A technology buff, he also has an avatar in Second Life _ an online world rarely inhabited by global statesmen _ and his profile on the social networking site Facebook was choked with messages of congratulations Thursday.

Nicknamed "Brains" by Tony Blair's staff, the thoroughly modern Miliband is being groomed to be a candidate for prime minister.

"He has the brain the size of a planet," said Alex Bingham of London's Foreign Policy Center think thank. "But he's barely known outside of Britain _ that could either work for him or be a real problem."

Miliband, whose wife Louise Shackelton is an American citizen and a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra, has raised concerns over the Iraq war but voted for it in 2003. He sparred with then-Prime Minister Blair over his refusal to call for an immediate Israeli cease-fire during last year's conflict in Lebanon.

Some legislators pushed him to stand against Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, to succeed Blair _ which would have sparked a vote among party members _ but Miliband resisted, biding his time for a future bid for power.

Aides said the voracious blogger, who posted a final message on his environment department Web site shortly after taking his new job, had instructed Foreign Office staff to create a new blog for him as foreign secretary.

"I am honoured to take up this new post," Miliband wrote on his environment department Website. "The new mechanisms for political engagement and dialogue represented by this blog are needed more than ever."

"He's more than capable of succeeding as foreign secretary," said Elliot Morley, who served under Miliband as a junior environment minister. "His style is very thoughtful, but also very inclusive _ he will always listen to the views of those around him."

Morley said Miliband, like his predecessor as Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, had likely been switched to his new job from an environment post to reflect the importance of the climate change agenda.

"He is going to be a key player in the climate agenda and he'll have to work to push the Americans to move further, faster," Morley said.

The lawmaker, who adopted a son in the United States in 2004, hails from a Jewish family of political heavyweights.

His mother Marion Kozak was a leftist academic and his father Ralph was a Marxist scholar who fled to Britain from Belgium during World War II. He later taught at universities in Canada and the United States, including Brandeis University outside Boston.

Ralph was fiercely critical of the Vietnam War, and, in a 1967 article criticized the British government as too servile in its support of American policies there. In an argument with a decidedly contemporary ring, he called Harold Wilson's backing for the intervention "the most shameful chapter in the history of (the Labour) party."

Miliband, while leaving aside his father's Marxist rhetoric, has maintained close links with the United States. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988 after winning a scholarship.

His brother Ed Miliband joins him in Brown's team as Cabinet Office secretary _ the traditional policy enforcer role. The brothers left Brown's first Cabinet meeting together Thursday, chatting and smiling.

"He's certainly a gamble," said Julian Astle, director of the Center Forum, a liberal think tank in London. "But he could prove to be a gamble that really pays off."