FACTBOX: UK's Ashdown withdraws from U.N. Afghan post

(Reuters) - British politician and former soldier Paddy Ashdown, 66, has withdrawn from the contest to be the United Nations' envoy to Afghanistan.

On Saturday, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations said Kabul wanted a British NATO commander, General John McColl, to take up the post instead of Ashdown.

Ashdown had agreed with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take the job earlier this month.

Here are some facts on Ashdown:

A MILITARY LIFE:

* Jeremy John Ashdown was born in India on February 27, 1941, the eldest son of an Indian Army colonel. His father became a pig-farmer in Northern Ireland when Paddy was five years old.

* Ashdown was educated at an English private school where he earned the nickname Paddy because of a strong Irish accent, since lost. He later saw active service with Royal Marine commando units in the jungles of Borneo and on the streets of Belfast, and commanded a unit of the Special Boat Service in the Far East, becoming a first class Chinese interpreter.

* After leaving the marines, he joined Britain's mission to the United Nations in Geneva as a diplomat. But in 1976, he returned to England to join the Liberals.

BRITISH POLITICS:

* In July 1988 the little-known Ashdown was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats -- a job he later described as the toughest thing he ever did. He stood down as leader of the minority party in 1999 and retired from the House of Commons in 2001.

LIFE IN BOSNIA:

* In May 2002 Ashdown took over as the international community's High Representative in Bosnia, overseeing and coordinating the civilian implementation of the peace process.

* Ashdown left Bosnia in January 2006. Under his guidance, Bosnia's Muslim, Serbs and Croats came a long way towards bridging differences stemming from the 1992-95 war. They have agreed to strengthen central government and set up joint state-level military, police, tax authority and courts.

* Ashdown was knighted in 2000 and made a peer in 2001.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)