PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The new top U.S. diplomat for Libya is a Maine resident and Bowdoin College graduate.

Laurence Pope has arrived in the county to assume temporary control of the embassy in Tripoli after last month's deadly attack on the consulate in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.

The State Department said Thursday that Pope, an Arabic-speaking 31-year foreign service officer who retired in 2000, will serve as the charge d'affaires pending confirmation of the person who will be nominated to succeed Ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the Sept. 11 attack.

The department said Pope, a former ambassador to Chad and counter-terrorism director, would continue the work that Stevens had been doing.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree says Pope lives in Portland.