(Adds U.S. quote, paragraphs 5-6, Luck, 8-9) By Evelyn Leopold UNITED NATIONS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The United States wants to head the large U.N. peacekeeping operation, now led by France, when South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon becomes U.N. secretary-general next year, a senior U.S. official said. "We're trying," the American official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.S. interest in the the U.N. undersecretary-general job in peacekeeping has confirmed by two Security Council ambassadors. With the United States instrumental in Ban's election, the Bush administration believes it has a chance to head the peacekeeping department of more than 90,000 troops, police and civilians, now headed by Frenchman Jean-Marie Guehenno. Ban is now in France as he tours the five council members. All undersecretaries-general are asked to resign when a new U.N. chief takes over. Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, however, played down the U.S. quest for a seat. "There is no opening, If there were an opening , we would consider nominating someone," Grenell said. Some key ambassadors said privately they were dismayed by the U.S. move, fearing it would discourage some states from volunteering peacekeepers because of objections to the Bush administration's intervention in Iraq. The United States currently leads the U.N. management department, which includes financing, but Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor and U.N. expert, said management had not been a "good choice" for the United States because "we get typecast as only caring about the finances and money." "I am very pleased that they are looking at other possibilities," said Luck who has advised governments and U.N. officials. "I have been urging them to look for the top political posts." U.S. officials say that Washington pays for about 27 percent of the peacekeeping bill, now estimated at close to $5 billion a year. The United States has some 239 U.N. civilian police officers in Kosovo and 48 police in Haiti plus a scattering of civilians in various operations but there are no American troops on the ground in U.N. missions. In contrast, France has some 1,500 soldiers in Lebanon and has 4,000 troops in the Ivory Coast as a separate unit working with U.N. peacekeepers. Lee Feinstein, a senior fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations, said the small American contribution to peacekeeping would make the United State an unpopular choice to head the department. But he said the post would be helpful to cement American support for the United Nations. "The United States is often critical of U.N. peacekeeping operations," Feinstein said. "If putting an American in charge would lead to improvements as well as a better understanding of the challenges peacekeeping faces, it would be a good thing." Noting that the U.S. in the past had focused on budget and reform issues, "it is significant that the administration is attaching so much to peacekeeping, which is experiencing an unprecedented surge and operating in places of concern to Washington," Feinstein said. Britain, diplomats said, was lobbying to regain the U.N. political affairs department, which it had to give up to Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria when two other Britons were appointed to senior U.N. posts in the past few years.
