Former Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick is planning to join the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain next year, overseeing development of domestic and foreign policy, Republican officials tell TIME.

Zoellick, who will be working in New York and around the world for Goldman Sachs starting Sept. 11, told TIME that McCain contacted him as he was leaving the State Department this summer, and said he is delighted to advise the prospective campaign. "I have great respect for John McCain's character, sense of honor and record and have worked with him on a host of foreign policy and economic issues, and think he would make a great President who would fit the times and challenges," Zoellick said.

[Update: An earlier version of this posting incorrectly said Zoellick would work full-time for the campaign.]

The Arizona Senator has said he will not make a firm decision about whether to pursue the Republican presidential nomination until after November's midterm elections. But his advisers are already doing heavy outreach to key early states in the nominating process like New Hampshire and South Carolina, and the Senator is traveling like a candidate. Now, the GOP officials disclosed, McCain's advisers are making plans to launch a formal campaign in the first quarter of 2007 if he decides to go ahead.

Zoellick, who was U.S. Trade Ambassador in President Bush's first term and is headed for Wall Street until he joins McCain, will be one of the top members of the prospective campaign's senior staff. The officials say the arrangement was worked out about three months ago and came about because of mutual admiration between the Senator and Ambassador Zoellick, and through the involvement of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) of Utah, who's an active McCain supporter and is close friends with Zoellick. McCain already has strong views and a large stable of advisers on foreign policy, so Zoellick will manage that process. The domestic side will involve more policy development.

The rapid pace envisioned by McCain's advisers, and the firm commitments he is securing from top political, governing and fund-raising talent, reflect McCain's determination to "have the full complement of what a frontrunner's campaign should look like," according to a GOP official familiar with his plans.

Although much attention has been given to the fund-raising and campaign machine McCain is assembling, his advisers also are deep into planning a large policy and issue apparatus. McCain sources said it's too early to describe the theme of his policy, but said it will be "bedrock conservatism, Main Street Republican, what we got used to in the Reagan administration and with former President Bush." Among his star recruits:

--Phil Handy of Florida, who handles Gov. Jeb Bush's financial trusts and was named by the governor to chair the Florida State Department of Education, will be an education adviser, political adviser and fund-raiser for McCain's campaign, the officials said. That strengthens McCain's growing ties with Gov. Bush.

--Phil Gramm, the former U.S. Senator from Texas, will have a broad economic-policy portfolio, from trade and budget policy to private property rights. Another leader of the economic team will be Gerald Parsky, President Bush's California chairman and a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Also working on fiscal policy will be two former directors of the Congressional Budget Office: Dan Crippen, a budget and domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan who chaired a panel advising NASA on changes after the space shuttle Columbia disaster, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who also was chief economist of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. Crippen will be staff director of issue development.

--Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) will help with defense policy, and is a key link to evangelical Christians.

Zoellick, a Harvard Law graduate who later was an executive vice president at Fannie Mae, has held senior positions under the last three Republican Presidents.

"It's a big get," the GOP official said. Zoellick was Deputy Secretary of State under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from February 2005 until July. In September, he joins Goldman Sachs as a managing director and vice chairman. He left government after he was not selected to succeed John Snow as Treasury Secretary. During the administration of President George H.W. Bush, Zoellick was Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs and later White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and he held several Treasury Department positions under Reagan. -- With reporting by Michael Duffy/Washington