US President George W. Bush has tapped former New York police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, to head the Department of Homeland Security, officials said Thursday.  

Kerik, 49, would replace Tom Ridge who was sworn in in January 2003 as the country's first homeland security secretary and announced his resignation Tuesday. The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

Kerik joined the New York Police Department in 1986 and was appointed commissioner in 2000.

Kerik becomes the sixth candidate that Bush has chosen for his second-term cabinet.

Also on Thursday, Bush named Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns as the new agriculture secretary to succeed Ann M. Veneman, who announced her resignation in mid-November.

Previously, Bush had chosen four candidates, three of them from within the White House, for his new cabinet, to head the departments of State, Justice, Education and Commerce respectively.     

Seven of Bush's 15 cabinet members have announced their resignations so far, and more are expected.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans announced their resignations on Nov. 9, one week after Bush was reelected on Nov. 2. They were followed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Agriculture Secretary Ann Venneman in mid-November.

In another development, US Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth, 68, resigned Thursday after serving at the post for less than six months.

A former Republican senator from Missouri, Danforth had been considered a candidate for secretary of state, a post for which Bush had instead chosen his National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2004)