Confusion marks Briton's nomination for UN top post

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 7 (Reuters) A British member of the European Parliament with a Sri Lankan passport has lobbied for the job of UN secretary-general, but his sponsor, Fiji, distanced itself from the nomination.

Confusion abounded over the candidacy of Niranjan Deva-Aditya, 58, who also goes by the name of Nirj Deva, and serves as a British Conservative Party member of the European Parliament as well as an ambassador at large from Sri Lanka.

Neither Deva's native Sri Lanka nor Britain has backed him to replace Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose term expires on December. 31. Deva has set up a Web site to promote his candidacy.

But Fiji's foreign minister wrote a letter promoting Deva's candidacy in July, which the country's deputy UN ambassador, Filimone Kau, said was not an official notification.

The letter, dated July 18, from Foreign Minister Kaliopate Tavola, asked the Security Council to add Deva's name ''to your list of candidates'' but said the council should ''firstly undertake its deliberation to reduce the field of candidates.'' Tavola wrote that Deva had been particularly active on Asian issues, including those facing Pacific small-island states like Fiji, according to the letter obtained by Reuters and delivered to the 15 council members yesterday.

Kau said the foreign minister's letter ''could be just a letter of support but we don't see it as an official note from the government nominating him as a candidate for the position of secretary-general.'' STRAW POLLS The Security Council has held one straw poll on candidates.

A second informal poll will be held on September. 14 and perhaps another one on Sept. 28, said Greece's UN ambassador, Adamantios Vassilakis, who holds this month's rotating council presidency.

Vassilakis said he had just received the packet of letters directly from Deva, which he said violated procedures.

''I don't know what to do with him,'' Vassilakis said, adding he was attempting to clarify the issue.

''The confusion is that the paper has not been submitted to the council by the Fiji UN mission, which is the proper procedure,'' Vassilakis said.

''There should be a letter from the foreign minister and then the mission should send another letter to the president of the council submitting the letter of the foreign minister,'' he said. ''We did not have that.'' On Tuesday, Jordan's UN ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, 42, entered the race as the fifth candidate and the only Muslim, after none of the other declared candidates won decisive support in the straw poll the council conducted on July 24.

According to UN tradition, the next secretary-general should come from Asia. Jordan is considered part of the Asian regional group at the United Nations.

The other declared candidates are South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon; Shashi Tharoor of India, the UN undersecretary-general for public information; Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand's deputy prime minister; and Dhanapala, a former UN disarmament undersecretary-general.

The Security Council selects a secretary-general, whose candidacy has to be approved by the UN General Assembly.

REUTERS DH PM0638