The Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston has reached an agreement with toymaker Hasbro Inc. to produce a figure of the war hero and president as part of a collector's line that celebrates U.S. military heroes and famous battles.

The foot-high doll dressed in PT-109 khakis will hold a coconut shard bearing a rescue plea Kennedy carved after the Japanese sank his boat in World War II. His hair will be molded in plastic and painted a light brown, and he will carry a knife.

Some proceeds from the sales will be donated to the library foundation. No specifics were released.

Pawtucket-based Hasbro approached the library about the project in April, promising to create a respectful and tasteful figure, said Tom McNaught, spokesman for the library foundation.

``They had a record of doing it with dignity,'' McNaught said Wednesday.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, president of the library foundation, knows of the Hasbro agreement, which was approved by foundation executive director Charles Daly, a Kennedy aide in the White House, McNaught said.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., referred calls to McNaught.

A Hasbro designer traveled to the library in December to review pictures of Kennedy during the war and helped the production team choose the PT-109 outfit, said Bill Hartglass, head of the toymaker's GI Joe team.

After the Japanese sank PT-109, Kennedy and his crew swam to a nearby island. The message on the coconut was entrusted to islanders who brought it to the sailors' rescuers.

Library foundation directors requested changes after reviewing a prototype head.

``We were asked to make some alterations to the nose ... to make a more authentic shape,'' Hartglass said.

Designers considered reproducing the boat, but felt it couldn't properly be recreated in such a small size, Hartglass said.

A version of the doll was shown to some retailers at last week's American International Toy Fair in New York City, but Hasbro would not allow the figure to be photographed.

The doll was expected to cost between $30 and $35 and be available in stores in the fall. The Kennedy library will sell the figure in its gift shop.

Hasbro created GI Joe 36 years ago. As of last year, the company had sold 370 million of the dolls, company spokeswoman Holly Ingram said.

In recent years, GI Joe enthusiasts could buy figures modeled after such famous U.S. generals as Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton and Colin Powell.

[Updated 2/24/2000]