* Trade official turned author Punke tapped for WTO post
* USTR Kirk urges quick Senate confirmation
* Choice comes as world trade talks show signs of life
(Adds background)
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama intends to nominate Michael Punke, a former U.S. trade official turned novelist and screenwriter, to be U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, the White House said on Thursday.
The nomination, which must be approved by the Senate, fills a key slot on Obama's trade team as long-running world trade talks are showing renewed signs of life.
"Michael Punke is uniquely suited to lead USTR's team at the WTO, particularly at this critical time in the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement, urging quick approval of the nomination.
Kirk is in New Delhi for talks with about 34 other trade ministers on the Doha round, now in its eighth year. Host India hopes the meeting will produce a roadmap for resolving the remaining issues by the end of 2010.
Punke would take over from U.S. trade diplomat Peter Allgeier, who has stepped down as ambassador to the WTO after several years in Geneva, where day-to-day negotiations in the long-running Doha round of world trade talks take place.
Punke was a senior policy adviser in the U.S. Trade Representative's office in the mid-1990s after a two-year stint in the White House under former President Bill Clinton.
He began his government career in 1991 as international trade counsel to Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat who is currently chairman of the Finance Committee.
"An ambitious conclusion to the Doha Round would open markets for U.S. farmers, ranchers, workers and entrepreneurs, and provide a real boost to our economy at a time when we sorely need it. Michael is the right person to achieve that result," Baucus said.
Most recently, Punke has pursued a career as a novelist and history writer in addition to working as an adjunct professor at the University of Montana, according to his website at www.michaelpunke.com.
Punke's latest book, "Last Stand," is about conservationist George Bird Grinnell's crusade in the late 19th century to save the buffalo in the American West.
Punke graduated from George Washington University and Cornell Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the international law journal.
One of his screenplays, "Family History," is in development with 20th Century Fox and another is based on his novel "The Revenant," a U.S. trade official said.
Heading into this week's meeting in New Delhi, the Doha round talks have shown little progress since a July 2008 meeting in Geneva, which came close to reaching a breakthrough but instead ended in failure.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Doug Palmer; editing by Eric Beech and Vicki Allen)