Washington, April 23, 2005 (Reuters)

President George W Bush on Friday will nominate Marine Gen Peter Pace to serve as chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House said.

If confirmed by the Senate, 59-year-old Pace would become the first Marine Corps officer to serve as chairman — the highest ranking US military officer and principal military adviser to the president and defence secretary.

Pace, seen as closely aligned with defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, has been vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 2001 and previously headed Southern Command, responsible for US military operations in Latin America.

Bush will announce Pace's nomination in the morning, the White House said. Pace would replace Air Force Gen Richard Myers, 63, who is set to retire September 30. As Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, Pace has been involved in overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Myers has been the top US military officer since October 1, 2001, just after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Pace, born in Brooklyn and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, graduated from the US Naval Academy before serving in the Vietnam War.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff consists of a chairman and vice chairman as well as the top officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Officials said it was likely Bush would nominate Navy Adm Edmund Giambastiani Jr, 56, a former senior military assistant to Rumsfeld, to rep-lace Pace as vice chairman.