Washington ? Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark has told friends he is likely to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, a move that could shake up the crowded field just four months before the first nominating ballots are cast.

Clark, 58, has not made a decision, but the Arkansas resident is aggressively recruiting campaign staff and plans to announce his intentions next week, friends and party officials said. His earliest allies would be from former President Clinton’s Arkansas-based political network.

Clark confirmed that he was putting a campaign plan together but chalked it up to the type of “parallel planning” common in the military. “If you want to find out whether you’re going to go ahead, you have to have financial resources and you have to have staff available,” he said.

While mulling his options, Clark has met with several presidential contenders who covet his endorsement and might consider him for a vice presidential slot. He met Saturday with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who said it was too soon to talk about political alliances.

“There is a lot of vetting that would have to be done before you would have those kinds of discussions,” Dean said when asked whether he had discussed the vice presidency with Clark.

A senior adviser to another Democratic contender described Clark’s talks with his candidate as “almost an audition for the vice presidential sweepstakes.”

Clark has a resume that unnerves potential rivals — Rhodes scholar, first in his 1966 class at West Point, White House fellow, head of the U.S. Southern Command and NATO commander during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo.