Retired army general Roméo Dallaire says he'd be willing to take a seat in the Senate, an appointment sources indicate will be made soon.

The former commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda was initially taken aback at the suggestion he would shortly be elevated to the Senate, but said when and if Prime Minister Paul Martin calls, "I'll answer the phone."

"After five years serving from the outside, it would be interesting to serve from the inside and have an opportunity to influence there, and that would be an interesting venue," said Dallaire.

Sources have told the Toronto Star Dallaire, 58, has been offered a Senate appointment and that despite his public pronouncements, he has accepted.

Opposition officials admit Dallaire, the man who warned the world in vain about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, would be a virtually unassailable appointment.

The career soldier's heroic stature has been compounded by his public struggle to come to terms with the horrors of Rwanda, chronicled in his 2004

memoir Shake Hands with the Devil and more recently in a documentary of the same name.

The list of those rumoured to have been tabbed for the Senate includes Conservatives like former Ontario premier Ernie Eves, Hugh Segal, and Maureen McTeer, an author and academic who is married to former prime minister Joe Clark.

Other people who are said to be on the list: former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice McKinnon, NDP MP Bill Blaikie, and long-time Liberals Stan Keyes — a one-time cabinet minister — and Mary Clancy, the former consul-general to Boston.

There are 16 vacancies in the 105-seat Upper Chamber — including two Ontario vacancies — and it is expected half of those vacancies will be filled by women.

Dallaire, who is currently a visiting lecturer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., was in Ottawa yesterday as the 25th recipient of the Pearson Peace Medal for his contribution to multilateralism and human rights.