Top U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns to retire

By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nicholas Burns, a leading American policymaker on Iran and India, has decided to retire as the No. 3 U.S. diplomat for personal reasons, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday.

Rice is expected to recommend the U.S. ambassador to Russia, William Burns, to replace Burns as under secretary of state for political affairs, said a U.S. official, who asked not to be identified. The two men are not related.

Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and Greece as well as an ex-State Department spokesman, has had a major role in negotiating the two U.N. Security Council resolutions imposing sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The foreign ministers of Germany and the five permanent members of Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- will meet in Berlin on Tuesday to discuss a third sanctions resolution.

"He's going to continue to sprint until he leaves in March," Rice said of Burns. "Next week we will go together to Berlin to have a little meeting on the way forward on Iran -- the P5+1. And so we have a lot of work to do."

The United States believes Iran aims to acquire nuclear weapons and the U.N. sanctions are designed to force Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which can produce fuel for nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants.

Iran says its program is for power generation.