NEW YORK – Eight months after the World Trade Center memorial design was unveiled, New York Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have yet to find a prominent person willing to lead the foundation that’s raising the money to build it.

“We’re talking to several people and trying to persuade them to undertake what will be a very large and important job in the city,” said John Whitehead, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation will have the responsibility of raising between $400 million and $600 million for construction of the memorial and two cultural buildings at Ground Zero. Pulling together that much money, most of it from major corporations and wealthy philanthropists, will be a gargantuan task.

There has been no formal fund-raising yet, but the foundation has at least $1 million in its coffers.

An announcement on the board members and potentially the chair is expected within weeks.

, the source and Whitehead said – although officials have been as optimistic before.

In January, when the memorial design was unveiled, Whitehead and others said they expected a formal launch of the board later that month.

In May, Pataki planned to announce that Sandy Weill, chairman of Citigroup, and Jerry Speyer, who heads Tishman Speyer Properties, had agreed to serve as co-chairmen. But both men, citing time constraints, ended up turning it down.

Lynn Rasic, a Pataki spokeswoman, said the governor has “complete confidence” in Whitehead. Ed Skyler, Bloomberg’s press secretary, declined to comment.

Anthony Gardner, a member of the Coalition of 9/11 Families, said the group opposes the foundation’s creation.

“There shouldn’t be a private memorial foundation,” he said. “We feel this memorial should be under the National Park Service.”

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AP-NY-09-11-04 1636EDT