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President Bush yesterday nominated John C. Danforth, the former Republican senator from Missouri who has most recently served as special envoy to Sudan, to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If confirmed, he will replace John D. Negroponte who becomes top envoy to Iraq after the U.S.-led occupation ends June 30.

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He will present U.S. positions on contentious issues to a world body that includes many nations who are skeptical of, if not hostile to, the Bush administration foreign policy.

Danforth, now a lawyer in St. Louis, was also criticized for a Senate vote against imposing sanctions on South Africa's apartheid regime in the mid-1980s and a vote cutting funds for U.N. peacekeeping in the 1990s. He also voted to limit U.S. support for international family planning, said Don Kraus, vice president for Citizens for Global Solutions, a nonpartisan group that works to build U.S. support for international institutions.

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