Bush admn. declines comment on Shashi Tharoor's nomination

Washington, June 16 (UNI) The Bush Administration has declined comment on India's formal endorsement of UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor as the next Secretary General of the United Nations.

''Obviously the Secretary General of the United Nations is an extremely important position for the welfare of the whole world and the United States will be looking very carefully at all the nominees,'' a senior State administration official said when asked for a response on yesterday's announcement from New Delhi.

In fact, the United States has had little to say on the other candidates whose names have cropped from time to time from such countries as Sri Lanka, Thailand and South Korea.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan leaves office in December this year after serving two five-year terms at the world body.

Mr Tharoor, who is currently the UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, was yesterday officially nominated as India's candidate for the top UN job.

The decision to field Mr Tharoor comes with an assertion that under the principle of regional rotation, the next Secretary-General should be from Asia.

Hours after India announced its decision to nominate Mr Tharoor, Pakistan said it would field its own candidate to challenge him.

Despite all the hullabaloo made by the Asian wannabe candidates, the Bush administration has made it clear that it does not agree that Asia has the sole right to field the next candidate, and is looking to Eastern Europe and other precincts.

US officials have met each of the candidates, but apparently are not impressed with the unofficial contestants.

Mr Annan himself said under the UN tradition to rotate top jobs among the regions, his successor should come from the 54-member Asian region, which, in fact, stretches from Lebanon to Fiji. ''I have no horse in this race, and may the best man win,'' he remarked.

Meanwhile South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, describing himself as a harmonizer, is the latest among Asian diplomats vying for the top United Nations post.

Mr Ban, a candidate for post of UN Secretary-General, said in New York recently that if selected to succeed Kofi Annan, he would work to narrow the divisions between nations, and heal the rift between member states and the secretariat that is meant to serve their interests.

Mr Ban, 62, is the third candidate from Asia, although there are at least a half-dozen more names frequently mentioned as possibilities to take over from Mr Annan.

Among them are Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, who has some support among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) but his constant campaigning also has discouraged some nations.

Seasoned Sri Lankan diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala is another serious contestant for the position. He is the Sri Lankan government's former peace negotiator with rebel factions, who also served for five years as the UN undersecretary-general for disarmament. His reputation is building, but not so much in the Security Council, which holds primary responsibility for choosing the next secretary-general.

All the candidates are making hectic behind-the-scene efforts to take up the coveted post.

The Bush administration is expected to make its decision known by the end of fall when the serious business of selecting a candidate begins, according to State Department sources.

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