By Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressman Paul Ryan nailed down crucial endorsements on Thursday and was expected to declare soon that he will run for the top job in the U.S. House of Representatives, as Republicans tried to end a crippling internal power struggle.
With a deadline to raise the U.S. debt limit only days away, the House has been transfixed by a chaotic struggle to find a successor to replace House Speaker John Boehner, who said last month that he plans to step down on Oct. 30.
Republicans are scheduled to vote on nominating a new speaker on Oct. 28, with a vote by the full House on Oct. 29.
Republicans who have met with Ryan, a Wisconsin lawmaker who ran for vice president in 2012, said they expected him to run.
"He's seeking the speakership, and he feels confident he can unite our conference," said Florida Representative Carlos Curbelo as he left a meeting between Ryan and Republican moderates. "He can heal all these factional differences."
Ryan earlier this week said he was open to replacing Boehner, but only if he could win the unified backing of his divided party colleagues in the House.
Ryan met on Thursday with the Tuesday Group of 50 or so House Republican moderates and won its endorsement.
The largest group of House conservatives, the Republican Study Committee, also said it was backing Ryan.
"He (Ryan) has the policy expertise, conservative principles and strong values we need in our next Speaker," Representative Bill Flores, chairman of the group, said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Ryan gained the support of two-thirds of another Republican faction, the hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus. Some caucus members were expected to vote for Daniel Webster, another lawmaker seeing the post.
Party infighting has overshadowed urgent fiscal issues. If Congress fails to boost the U.S. debt limit by Nov. 3, the Treasury Department has warned that the government could default on its debt, which would shake global markets. The Republican-controlled Congress has offered no clear plan to prevent this.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Ryan appeared to be on a path toward speaker. "We'll look forward to welcoming him if that all works out ... It looks like it will," Pelosi said at a news conference.