By Francois Murphy and Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS, May 16 (Reuters) French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to pick maverick left-winger Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister, a move that would back up his campaign pledge to put human rights at the heart of France's diplomacy.

Kouchner, an outspoken former health minister and ex-U N governor of Kosovo, is one of France's most popular figures, largely due to humanitarian work which includes co-founding the Nobel Peace Prize-winning aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Another former leftist minister, Bernard Tapie, told French radio today Kouchner appeared to have accepted the post, despite sharp criticism from Socialist leaders who have accused Sarkozy of trying to use the appointment to divide their party.

''I have the impression that it's yes and I think it's a good recruitment for the president and it's a very good thing for Kouchner,'' said Tapie.

It would be the first time a president has named someone from a different camp to such a senior post -- a coup for Sarkozy as he bids to belie his reputation as an uncompromising rightist, but a strategy which contains risks.

Kouchner has the reputation of being impulsive, and some political analysts foresee possible problems for him working alongside Sarkozy, who has the ultimate say in foreign affairs.

''He's capable of storming out of the job. We don't know whether it will last,'' said political analyst Henri Rey. ''There is indeed a risk that the contract will be a short-term one, that he won't accept certain compromises.'' However, Kouchner, a doctor, has also shown himself to be a pragmatist by accepting the job even though he criticised Sarkozy during the campaign.

When Sarkozy said he planned to set up a ministry for immigration and national identity, Kouchner said he had ''no shame fishing in the waters of the extreme right''.

SOUNDBITE SPECIALIST Like the new president, Kouchner, 67, is a master of soundbites.

He embarrassed the French government in which he served in the early 1990s by branding the late Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko a ''walking bank safe in a leopard-skin hat'' just as French troops were intervening to drive out anti-Mobutu rebels.

During his time in Kosovo, where he was U N governor from 1999 to 2001, he spoke out on a range of issues, sometimes complaining that the West was turning its attention and resources away from Kosovo too quickly, other times launching fierce denunciations of ethnically motivated attacks.

But he has similar convictions to Sarkozy on key issues, such as the plight of Africa, the world's poorest continent, a large swathe of which was once colonised by France.

Sarkozy has said he wants to put more pressure on Russia over Chechnya and on Sudan over Darfur, and has broken with his predecessor Jacques Chirac by opposing the lifting of an EU arms embargo against China, saying it must do more on human rights.

''There are convergences on foreign policy. That is clear.

There is indeed a way of finding common ground,'' Rey said.

Kouchner has been a leading advocate of ''humanitarian intervention'' -- the right to get involved in another country's affairs if human rights are being abused.

That could help Sarkozy strengthen ties with Washington after Chirac opposed the U S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, though ties have since warmed.

Kouchner was one of the rare French politicians who spoke out in favour of a military intervention in Iraq in 2003, saying he was against war but also against Saddam Hussein's regime.

REUTERS ABM HT1605