Jan 27 (Reuters) - Activist investor Ancora has

nominated nine candidates to U.S. Steel's board of

directors, as it looks to oust company CEO David Burritt and

push the American steelmaker to back out of a $14.9 billion

merger deal with Japan's Nippon Steel ( NISTF ).

The activist investor, which owns a 0.18% stake in the

company, on Monday proposed to replace top boss Burritt with

Alan Kestenbaum, former CEO of Canada's Stelco that was acquired

by Cleveland-Cliffs ( CLF ) in a $2.8 billion deal last year.

Cliffs in 2023 had proposed to acquire U.S. Steel, but the

Pittsburgh steelmaker raised concerns about antitrust issues,

while it accepted a higher offer from Nippon Steel ( NISTF ) soon after.

"We are...concerned about the motivations behind these

nominations, given Ancora's and Alan Kestenbaum's recent

dealings with failed bidder Cleveland-Cliffs ( CLF )," U.S. Steel said

in a statement on Monday.

Ancora has nominated nine candidates to U.S. Steel's board,

which has a total of 12 members.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Cleveland-Cliffs ( CLF )

was partnering with peer Nucor ( NUE ) for a new

all-cash bid for U.S. Steel after former U.S. President Joe

Biden blocked Nippon Steel's ( NISTF ) bid on national security grounds.

However, Ancora said on Monday it was not interested in the

sale of U.S. Steel to another party, including Cleveland-Cliffs ( CLF ),

and instead wants to pursue $565 million in breakup fee from

Nippon Steel ( NISTF ).

Shares of U.S. Steel were down 1.6% in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank

Dhaniwala, Varun H K and Shinjini Ganguli)