TOKYO, April 1 (Reuters) - Nippon Steel ( NISTF ) intends

to pursue its proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel and wants

its "deep roots" in the United States to be recognised, its new

president said - remarks that come after U.S. President Joe

Biden expressed opposition to the deal.

The Japanese firm has agreed to buy U.S. Steel for roughly

$15 billion but the deal faces an uphill battle to approval in a

U.S. election year.

The White House sees steel as critical to national security

and Biden said last month that U.S. Steel should remain

domestically owned. His opponent in the November presidential

vote, former President Donald Trump, has promised to block the

deal if he is re-elected.

It's not clear if Biden plans to use any U.S regulatory

authorities to scuttle the deal.

"What U.S. politicians are concerned about is jobs and

whether U.S. Steel can develop as an iconic U.S. company in the

U.S.," Tadashi Imai told reporters last week before he took on

his new role on Monday.

"I am convinced that we're the most useful partner to help

U.S. Steel grow in the United States," he added.

Imai, 60, became president in a management reshuffle

intended to lower the average age of top executives but in a

break with tradition, its charismatic former president Eiji

Hashimoto has taken on the title of chief executive and will be

in charge of shepherding the acquisition.

The proposed deal has drawn strong criticism from some

lawmakers and the United Steelworkers (USW) labor union which is

worried about potential job losses.

Japan's largest steelmaker has pledged no job cuts as a

result of the deal, to honour all agreements between the union

and U.S. Steel as well as to move its own U.S. headquarters to

Pittsburgh where U.S. Steel is based.

Imai said he was hopeful that Nippon Steel ( NISTF ) would come to be

seen as a firm with deep roots in the U.S., noting that it has

had a presence there since the 1980s and has 4,000 employees in

the country, some of whom are also members of the USW.

"The most important thing and the only thing that we can do

is to talk to the USW in good faith," about investment plans and

measures to raise the competitiveness of U.S. Steel, he said.

Imai said that the acquisition would give U.S. Steel access

to Nippon Steel's ( NISTF ) advanced technologies such as electromagnetic

steel sheet, adding that the Japanese firm has some 2,000 steel

patents in North America while U.S. steelmakers in general had

roughly 200 each.

At home, Imai's main focus will be decarbonisation, he said,

adding that the company will soon need to make investment

decisions on whether to invest in new electric furnaces at two

sites - the Kyushu Works Yawata site in southern Japan and

Setouchi Works Hirohata site in western Japan.

The company must decide on the projects either this

financial year or the next one, Imai said.

"It will be a huge investment ... but the time for a key

decision is approaching on the technical certainty and

predictability of the return on investment."