FACTBOX: Who is Catherine Ashton?

(Reuters) - European Union leaders are expected to appoint a foreign policy chief at a summit on Thursday.

The high representative for foreign affairs and security policy will have enhanced powers under the bloc's Lisbon reform treaty and head an external action service designed to give the EU more influence on the world stage.

Below are some details about Catherine Ashton, 53, who could be a candidate.

* POLITICS:

-- Ashton has had little foreign affairs experience, but she has proved adept at picking up the busy EU trade portfolio, which she took on in 2008 after former commissioner Peter Mandelson returned to British politics.

* LIFE DETAILS:

-- Catherine Margaret Ashton was born in Upholland in Lancashire in March 1956.

-- From 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship.

-- She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998-2001, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families.

-- In 2001, Ashton was made parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Education and Skills, where she dealt with issues ranging from school policies to a ban on smacking by child minders.

-- She became a life peer in 1999 and became Baroness Ashton of Upholland. She was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council in Gordon Brown's first cabinet in June 2007.

-- Ashton helped steer the Lisbon Treaty through the Britain's upper house and has dealt with EU justice and home affairs issues in her previous positions.

Sources: Reuters/ec.europa.eu

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)