Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte on Tuesday went before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing as President George W. Bush's nominee for deputy secretary of state.

Here are several facts about the career diplomat who would become Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's chief aide if confirmed by a vote of the full Senate:

* Negroponte became the first U.S. director of national intelligence in April 2005, filling a job that had been created by post-Sept. 11 reforms that Congress mandated to safeguard the United States from major attack.

* The intelligence post was the second major Bush administration assignment in as many years for Negroponte, who also spent nine months as the first U.S. ambassador to postwar Iraq beginning in June 2005.

* He became Bush's ambassador to the United Nations a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, and remained in that post through the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

* Negroponte, who speaks five languages, has had eight foreign service postings including one in Vietnam since becoming a diplomat in 1960. He has served as ambassador to Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines.

* He became deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in 1987 at the recommendation of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was then national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

* Negroponte was born in London on July 21, 1939, the son of a Greek shipping magnate. He and his English wife, Diana, adopted five children in Honduras.

* Negroponte would be replaced as intelligence chief by retired Navy Adm. Mike McConnell, who is scheduled to have his confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

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