AFP North America director David Millikin has returned to Sydney to head up the agency's bureau in Sydney.

He is replaced by Brigitte Dusseau, former director of the New York bureau.

Millikin joined AFP in 1983 as a journalist in Hong Kong desk and then the English desk in Paris, working in Washington, Jerusalem and as English Service chief in Paris before being appointed as Sydney bureau chief and then State Department correspondent. He headed up AFP subsidiary Newswag in San Francisco before returning to Washington as chief news editor for North America, and has been director of the North American region since April 2012.

The moves are part of a series which see director of the Latin American region Juliette Hollier-Larousse, where she replaces Marie-Noëlle Vallès. Vallès is joining the sales and marketing department to work with director Stéphane Marcovitch.

AFP has also named Pierre Ausseill, director of the Rio de Janeiro bureau in Brazil, as director for its Latin American region.