WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect

Donald Trump's transition team has signed a memorandum of

understanding with the White House that will allow Trump to

formally begin his transition to power, his incoming chief of

staff said on Tuesday, after weeks of delays.

The move will allow Trump's team to coordinate directly with

federal agencies and access documents. The unusual delay in

signing the agreement after the Nov. 5 election had raised

concerns among some critics about potential hiccups in

government operations or conflicts of interest.

"This engagement allows our intended Cabinet nominees to

begin critical preparations, including the deployment of landing

teams to every department and agency, and complete the orderly

transition of power," Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, said

in a statement.

Trump, a Republican, will take office on Jan. 20. His team

had rejected entreaties from Democratic President Joe Biden's

administration to quickly sign a memorandum of understanding and

had objected to some elements of a traditional transition

agreement, according to the White House.

Under the agreement signed on Tuesday, Trump's team avoided

signing a government ethics pledge, saying it has its own ethics

plan that will "meet the requirements for personnel to

seamlessly move into the Trump administration."

The separate ethics pledge was later posted to the General

Services Administration's website. It included promises that

transition team members will avoid conflicts of interests, will

safeguard classified information and will disqualify themselves

from involvement in any matter if they have engaged in lobbying

on the issue in the previous 12 months.

However, it did not include a pledge that Trump would avoid

conflicts of interest or that he hold only "non-conflicting

assets," promises in the more standard agreement signed by Vice

President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

Trump has a stake valued at $3.76 billion in Trump Media &

Technology Group ( DJT ), which runs his Truth Social platform, as well

as stakes in a cryptocurrency business, real estate properties

and several foreign deals.

The family real estate company, now run largely by Trump's

son Eric, owns a portfolio of hotels, golf courses, resorts and

New York City office space, retail operations and condominiums.

The Trump pledge also did not include a promise to protect

whistleblowers on his transition team, a promise in the Harris

pledge.

SECURITY CLEARANCES

Separately, the Trump transition team has not entered into a

memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice to

allow the FBI to conduct background checks of nominees, and it

has not sent the FBI the names of prospective national security

personnel who would have access to classified information.

A White House official said while a Justice Department

agreement has not been signed, progress has been made toward

such an agreement.

Circumventing background checks would buck a

long-established norm in Washington, but the president has the

final authority on whom he nominates and picks to conduct

background checks.

The transition said on Tuesday it already has existing

security and information protections built in, "which means we

will not require additional government and bureaucratic

oversight."

Trump's team also broke from tradition and did not sign an

agreement with the General Services Administration that would

provide the use of office space. The team said it did not want

to waste taxpayer money by using government offices.

White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma said the Biden

administration did not agree with the Trump team's decision to

forgo signing some of the usual agreements but the White House

would go ahead with the transition process to avoid more delays.

Trump's team said his transition will use private funding

instead of government money to pay for transition costs. The

team said donors to the transition will be disclosed to the

public.