UPDATE 3-BP gives ground over TNK-BP leadership

* Shareholder Mikhail Fridman to be interim CEO

* BP nominee Skitovich and Barsky to vie for CEO role

* Permanent CEO to be appointed by end of the year

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By Tom Bergin and Robin Paxton

LONDON/MOSCOW, May 27 (Reuters) - Mikhail Fridman, one of BP Plc's (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) billionaire partners in No. 3 Russian oil producer TNK-BP, will become interim chief executive of the joint venture after BP gave ground over its preferred pick for the job.

BP and Alfa-Access-Renova, the group through which Fridman and three other Russia-connected billionaires own 50 percent of TNK-BP, said in a joint statement on Wednesday they hoped to select a new, permanent chief executive by the end of the year.

Two newly appointed executives will vie for the post: Pavel Skitovich, the BP nominee and a former employee of billionaire Vladimir Potanin, and Mikhail Barsky, a board member at oil firm West Siberian Resources WSIBsdb.ST. "The company needs to retain talented managers and attract the best executives capable of running the company in the long term," said Viktor Vekselberg, another of the AAR quartet and a 12.5 percent shareholder in TNK-BP.

Fridman led a bitter battle against BP for control of TNK-BP last year, which was settled only when BP agreed to cede much of its influence at a company accounting for a quarter of its worldwide output.