WASHINGTON – Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, a fixture at Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s side during the Sept. 11 attacks, has been tapped to run the Department of Homeland Security, a senior administration official said Thursday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kerik will replace Tom Ridge, who announced Tuesday that he’s stepping down as the nation’s anti-terror chief. President Bush is expected to officially nominate Kerik on Friday.

Bush continued to move quickly Thursday to fill his new Cabinet, selecting two-term Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns to head the Department of Agriculture. Johanns, who will replace Ann Veneman, is the son of a dairy farmer and has championed ethanol and other alternative energy sources.

Johanns and Kerik brought to seven the number of new Cabinet nominees Bush has chosen for his second presidential term, and more are expected.

Previously, Bush announced new choices for the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Justice and State.

In another development, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth submitted his resignation after less than six months on the job. There was no immediate word on a replacement.

A spokesman for Danforth said he wanted to spend more time with his wife, Sally, and retire to his native St. Louis. Danforth, who made Sudan’s humanitarian crisis a priority and had been mentioned as a possible secretary of state, never developed a solid relationship with Bush, another senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kerik, a onetime beat cop and narcotics detective with a black belt, has risen rapidly through the ranks. He hit the political trail this fall stumping for Bush and delivering a primetime speech at the Republican Convention, leading some to speculate that the Giuliani protege might have his eye on elected office himself.

Most recently, Kerik, 49, traded in New York for Iraq, leading the effort to build up the Iraqi police force. “Baghdad Bernie,” as he was dubbed in some of New York tabloids, won praise from Bush.

“Because of his leadership, his knowledge and his experience, he was able to stand up a police force in Baghdad in a very quick period of time,” Bush said in an appearance with Kerik on the South Lawn in early October 2003.

But some officials grumble privately that Kerik left before the job was finished and seemed more interested in the TV lights than the hard work of training and recruiting an Iraqi police force.

Kerik will inherit a sprawling two-year-old department of 180,000 federal employees that has had its share of growing pains from incompatible computers, hiring freezes, low morale, turf battles with the Department of Justice and a color-coded terror alert level that’s become fodder for late-night comedians.

A childhood troublemaker who dropped out of school, Kerik found his path after serving in the U.S. Army. He got his first taste of antiterrorism work as a private security worker in Saudi Arabia. He joined the New York Police Department in 1986 and soon took over the city’s department of corrections.

He was named police commissioner in 2000 with the department still reeling from racially charged scandals involving Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant assaulted in a station house with a broomstick, and Amadou Diallo, the West African immigrant who was shot 41 times by police who mistakenly believed he was reaching for a gun.

But it was Kerik’s steady leadership through the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and their aftermath that earned him a national reputation.

Kerik penned a best-selling autobiography, “The Lost Son,” about his blue-collar roots, his work in law enforcement and his mother, who had abandoned him as a young boy.

Kerik is a senior vice president at Giuliani Partners, the New York-based consulting firm that the former mayor set up with a number of top aides after leaving office.

He’s been a staunch supporter of Bush and the war in Iraq.

“It’s better to fight terrorists in Iraq than in New York or Washington,” he said recently.

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