South Korea's man has lock on UN job

Ban Ki-Moon

NEW YORK - South Korea's Foreign Minister, Ban Ki-Moon, is virtually certain to succeed Kofi Annan as United Nations Secretary-General after emerging as the only candidate without a veto in a final informal Security Council poll.

The council was expected to hold an official vote on Monday to choose the eighth UN leader since 1946.

The 192-member UN General Assembly must then approve the nomination, which it usually does.

"It is quite clear from today's straw poll that Minister Ban Ki-Moon is the candidate the Security Council will recommend to the General Assembly," said China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya.

A candidate must get at least nine positive votes and no veto from the 15-member UN Security Council in the race to succeed Annan, who ends his 10-year term on December 31.

Ban's closest rival, Shashi Tharoor of India, 50, the UN undersecretary-general for public information, withdrew after receiving 10 votes in favour, three against, one of which was a veto, and two "no opinions".

The informal poll was the fourth held since July and the first to distinguish between permanent members and the other 10 nations, elected for two-year terms.

Between the votes, diplomats said horse-trading was prevalent, especially among some major powers lobbying for key posts.

Council members marked ballots to "encourage, discourage or express no opinion" as in three previous informal polls. Each member could vote for more than one of the six candidates.

Ban, 62, received 14 votes in favour and one "no opinion" but no negative vote from any of five permanent members with veto power. The five - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - used blue-coloured ballots, while the 10 rotating members used white ones.

All the other candidates received five or fewer votes.

In third place was Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the only woman and non-Asian in the race. She received five votes in favour, six against, including two vetoes, and four undecided.

US Ambassador John Bolton has been pushing for the process to be completed as quickly as possible.

"New candidates still have the option of coming forward, but we've been waiting for new candidates and I don't know of any, there's no speculation of any," he said.

Jayantha Dhanapala, 67, of Sri Lanka, a former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament, withdrew after receiving only three positive votes in Thursday's poll.

In late 1996, Annan, a Ghanaian, emerged after the United States blocked a second term for Egypt's Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

France vetoed Annan several times, but eventually compromised. A Frenchman was then made head of UN peacekeeping.

Most council ambassadors agreed that the next secretary-general should come from Asia because of a tradition that rotates the post among regions of the world.

- REUTERS