When then-President-elect Barack Obama first asked Hillary Clinton to be his top diplomat, she turned him down and recommended others for the job, the secretary of state said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

When her name was mentioned in the media as a possible member of Obama's cabinet, Clinton said, she found the idea "absurd."

"And then when he called and asked me to come see him, and we had our first conversation, I said, 'You know, I really don't think I'm the person to do this, I want to go back to my life. I really feel like I owe it to the people of New York.' And I gave him a bunch of other names of people who I thought would be great secretaries of state."

But Obama "was quite persistent and very persuasive," Clinton said.

Some analysts have raised questions about how much power Clinton actually has in the administration, given that Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have done a great deal of international outreach themselves. The president has also appointed special envoys to focus on several key regions.