Reagan May Offer Kirkpatrick AID Post : Sources Close to U.N. Ambassador Doubt She Will Accept Job

President Reagan plans to offer U.N. Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick the post of administrator of the Agency for International Development and will emphasize his personal desire to keep her as a policy adviser, well-placed Administration sources said Wednesday.

Although these sources were optimistic that Kirkpatrick would accept the offer, sources close to the U.N. ambassador said it was unlikely that she would. They acknowledged, however, that Kirkpatrick is under heavy pressure from conservatives in and outside the Administration to accept any post Reagan might offer that would keep her close to the foreign policy decision-making process.

Reagan said Wednesday in an interview with United Press International that he intends to offer Kirkpatrick a high-level foreign policy position, but he would not specify which one.

“It is a department of the executive branch that I’m not free to talk about yet that I think she would be very good at,” Reagan said.

Administration officials said that Reagan will meet with Kirkpatrick at the White House next Wednesday to discuss her future. They last met on Dec. 10 and later announced that they would get together again after the inauguration.

When asked about the report that Reagan will offer her the AID post, Kirkpatrick said through a spokesman: “As I said after my Dec. 10 meeting with the President, I will have no further comment about my future until we meet again.”

AID Administrator M. Peter McPherson, who has not given any indication that he is leaving the post, had no comment.

The sources close to Kirkpatrick observed that in October, 1983, she had turned down the AID job, one of three positions that Reagan reportedly offered her after Administration moderates blocked her from succeeding William P. Clark as Reagan’s national security affairs adviser.

The White House political lineup has changed markedly since then. Chief of Staff James A. Baker III, considered a Kirkpatrick opponent, has been nominated as secretary of the Treasury. White House counselor Edwin Meese III, a Kirkpatrick supporter, has been nominated as attorney general.

Robert C. McFarlane, who succeeded Clark as national security affairs adviser, has stayed on and gradually become a power in the White House.

The sources close to Kirkpatrick acknowledged that Reagan might be able to change the ambassador’s mind about the AID post if he is particularly persuasive when they meet. But they stressed that she considers the AID post essentially a second-echelon job that has a limited scope and does not offer the chance to participate in major foreign policy decisions.

According to the sources, Kirkpatrick believes that, after four years in the highly visible U.N. post, she cannot accept any job that is regarded as less important without creating an impression that she has been demoted or sidetracked. In her view, that would erode her influence.