UPDATE 1-Frank lauds Dodd fight for US financial watchdog

* Dodd, Shelby reform talks broke down over watchdog

* Warren publishes article backing Obama proposal (Adds Warren article, Frank comment, background)

WASHINGTON Feb 9 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker on Tuesday said he supports Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd's fight for the Obama administration's proposed independent financial consumer watchdog agency.

"I welcome Senator Dodd's intention to fight to preserve an independent consumer agency," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, adding that past consumer protection failures helped cause the financial crisis.

"Those who cite safety and soundness as a major reason to oppose increased consumer protection have it exactly backwards. In fact, the inability to protect consumers from abuse was a major cause of the financial crisis from which we are just emerging," Frank said in a statement.

His comments came as Elizabeth Warren, head of a panel overseeing the $700-billion U.S. bank bailout program, published an article in The Wall Street Journal backing the agency, which is opposed by bank lobbyists and Republicans.

After months of negotiation toward a bipartisan agreement on financial regulation reform, talks between Dodd and Senator Richard Shelby, his Republican counterpart on the Senate Banking Committee, broke down last week over the proposal.

"Professor Warren's statement today is a beginning to the national debate that we should have on this issue in the coming weeks," Frank said. Warren is a Harvard University Law School professor. (Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh)