WASHINGTON —  Elizabeth Cheney (search), a daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney (search), is returning to the post of deputy assistant secretary of state for the Near East with added responsibilities.

Cheney, who held the post from 2002 to 2003 in President Bush's first term, will assist newly appointed Assistant Secretary David Welch (search) and also coordinate U.S. efforts to promote democracy and economic progress in the Middle East and Northern Africa, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday.

A lawyer who has worked in the U.S. embassies in Hungary and Poland, Cheney left her State Department post to work in her father's re-election campaign last year.