(Recasts to reflect statement's signing, adds details)

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The United States intends to open a diplomatic post in Ukraine's Crimea, a region that is home to many ethnic Russians as well as Russia's Black Sea fleet and is a source of tension between Kiev and Moscow.

The U.S. plan was laid out in a joint U.S.-Ukrainian declaration on expanding economic and security ties, signed on Friday by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Crimean post was not meant to provoke Russia, which defeated Georgia's military in August in a war over the pro-Moscow region of South Ossetia.

The Georgian war raised worries about Kremlin intentions elsewhere in Russian-populated areas of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine's Crimea.

"Ukraine welcomes the United States' intention to establish an American diplomatic presence (American presence post) in Simferopol," the capital of Crimea, said the joint declaration, called a "Charter on Strategic Partnership."

President George W. Bush leaves office Jan. 20 but McCormack was unclear about whether the Bush administration would open the diplomatic post before then, or to leave a recommendation for the administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Ohryzko told reporters it "probably will be done next year" but declined to be more precise about Ukraine's expectations.

Washington also pledged in the declaration to help strengthen Ukraine's candidacy for membership in the NATO military alliance -- an idea anathema to Moscow.

TRAINING UKRAINE FORCES

The declaration, which does not have the binding status of a treaty, said Washington would work within the NATO-Ukraine Commission to agree on a plan for training and equipping Ukrainian armed forces to make them more "interoperable" with NATO.

Washington also promised to help Ukraine with "rehabilitating and modernizing the capacity of Ukraine's gas transit infrastructure." No details were provided.

Gas supplies are another area complicating Kiev's relations with Russia, which has warned it will cut off the gas it provides Ukraine next year if Kiev does not make good on its debts.

Russia takes an intense interest in Crimea affairs because for much of recent history, Crimea was ruled by Moscow. It was formally handed to Soviet Ukraine in 1954, when the collapse of the Soviet Union was unthinkable.

Now Russian nationalist politicians call periodically for the return of at least Sevastopol, the Crimean port where the Black Sea fleet is based under a lease agreement. Kiev has urged the Black Sea fleet to quit the Crimea in 2017.

McCormack said the U.S. diplomatic post would be a small one with a range of work from "cultural events to doing political reporting," and denied any intention to upset Russia.

"This is about U.S.-Ukraine bilateral relations. If the Russian government chooses to be upset by ... my stating that we're considering opening up a one-person or two-person American presence post, well, there's not much I can do about that," he said.

Ohryzko acknowledged the future of Ukraine's relations with Washington also depended on the incoming Obama administration but said Ukraine would deal with that administration in the same way, and hoped to continue strengthening bilateral ties.

The foreign minister also told reporters Ukraine was "very grateful" for the "remarkable" economic cooperation pledged by the Bush administration, but did not elaborate.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

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