Obama considers Jones for top security job: report

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is leaning toward selecting retired Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, ABC News reported on Thursday.

Jones is among several candidates under consideration for the job, which coordinates foreign policy throughout the administration.

James Steinberg, who was deputy national security adviser in Bill Clinton's administration, is also a candidate for the job.

The ABC report said Jones had emerged as the leading candidate for Obama, who is said to value his advice and likes the idea of hiring someone for the job with more than four decades of active military experience.

ABC also said that retired Adm. Dennis Blair was the top candidate to be the director of national intelligence.

Neither man had been officially offered the job or accepted, according to the ABC report.

Jones is an ex-commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and former top operational commander of NATO. He is widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans but has avoided aligning himself with either party.

Jones is known to have been a strong critic of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war.

In Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward's 2006 book "State of Denial," Jones is quoted as describing the Iraq war as a "debacle."

(Editing by Peter Cooney)