WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has asked budget official Jeff Zients to stay in his administration as acting budget director, taking him out of the running to become trade chief, according to a source familiar with the White House plan.

Zients had been the front-runner to become trade representative. Obama decided he needed Zients to stay in the economic team at a time when the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was playing a critical role in dealing with the "sequester" set of across-the-board budget cuts.

Zients would stay in that role until the confirmation of Sylvia Mathews Burwell, whom Obama has nominated to lead OMB.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Eric Beech)