WASHINGTON - Former NATO commander and political novice Wesley Clark has decided to join the 2004 White House race, making the retired four-star general the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, sources close to him said on Tuesday.

Clark, a former top Pentagon war planner who headed the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo but is a newcomer to the battlefield of presidential politics, was to announce his decision in Little Rock, Arkansas on Wednesday, the sources said.

His entry, widely anticipated by many Democrats, throws another wild card into an already unpredictable campaign that has focused on the struggling U.S. economy and President Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

Clark, 58, who had agonized over his decision for months, has been meeting with potential donors and supporters and recently began interviewing prospective campaign managers.

Ron Oliver, the Arkansas Democratic Party chairman, told Reuters Clark met with about 75 to 100 local activists and national party figures in Little Rock on Tuesday.

Oliver cited Clark as telling the group, "I think this crowd is going to like the announcement tomorrow."

"I think you are going to see a new direction in the presidential campaign," Clark was quoted as saying.

Oliver said a decision on the time and place for the Clark announcement would be decided shortly.

"It's a go," said one political source.

CLINTON OFFICIALS MEET WITH CLARK

Among those invited to the meeting with Clark were officials of President Bill Clinton's administration, including Mark Fabiani, a former White House spokesman.

Several members of the team that helped take Clinton from governor of Arkansas to president in 1992 were in Little Rock and had been talking with Clark.

Whether the decorated Vietnam veteran will be a campaign trail star or crash and burn is a subject of much debate among Democrats, who still do not know much about the political rookie.

Clark has the resume to be a legitimate contender -- Rhodes scholar, first in his 1966 class at West Point, four-star Army general and head of the U.S. Southern Command -- but he is getting a late start that puts him far behind his rivals in fund-raising and organization.

"I think it will be very difficult for him," Richard Myers, former House Democratic leader in Iowa, said recently. "There is interest in what he has to say, but many of the other candidates have been here organizing for a very long time."

Some analysts believe the inability of anyone beyond former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to make a move in the crowded Democratic field, and a recent poll that showed two-thirds of voters still cannot name a Democratic candidate, leave a clear opening for a new face four months before the first primary voting.

His major selling points have been his military experience, which could give him standing against Bush on national security issues, and his early opposition to the war in Iraq.

Clark's candidacy means Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, can no longer claim to be the sole Democratic candidate with combat experience. And Clark's opposition to invasion of Iraq means Dean has competition for the anti-war vote.

Being from the South, Clark also could draw support away from North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who formally announced his candidacy on Tuesday, and Florida Sen. Bob Graham.

Clark would not be starting entirely from scratch. He sparked strong grass-roots backing on the Internet, and a Draft Clark Web site has gathered pledges of more than $1.3 million that will be turned over to him.

Additional reporting by Steve Barnes in Arkansas

© Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd

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