Washington - U.S. State Department official Roberta Jacobson, who led negotiations on normalization of ties with Cuba, was approved as the new American ambassador to Mexico on Tuesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Jacobson, currently the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, was approved by a vote of 12-7. Her nomination had been delayed by some senators who oppose President Barack Obama's moves toward normalization of relations with Cuba.

The Foreign Relations panel also approved several other nominations, including Obama's nomination of Thomas Shannon, currently the State Department counselor, to be an undersecretary of state for political affairs.

Jacobson must be approved in the full 100-member Senate before she can take up her position in Mexico City.

Spokesmen for the Senate's Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when those votes might take place.