US likely to back S Korean FM for UNSG

New Delhi, Sep 19: The United States may not support Mr Shashi Tharoor, India's candidate for the UN Secretary General's post, but may back South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon who is also in the race.

Former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said here that there was a ''big question mark'' on whether this was the time for the United Nations to have a Secretary General from within the (UN) system.

There has never been a Secretary General who comes from a country allied with any of the super powers, Mr Talbott said in an address on 'US Foreign Policy in Presidential Election Season.' ''South Korean Foreign Minister seems to be a plausible candidate,'' he said at the seminar organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a New Delhi-based think tank.

Mr Talbott, who is now President of Brookings Institution, a US think tank, said the Sri Lankan candidate was also a plausible candidate for the top UN post.

Asked why was the US keeping its cards too close to its chest on the issue, Mr Talbott said Mr Kofi Annan had done a great job as the UN Secretary General and deserved to go on a much stronger note.

''Let his successor not have already looking over his shoulder...He deserves to go on a much, much stronger note,'' Mr Talbott added.

Mr Annan is the seventh Secretary General in the 61-year-history of the United Nations. He retires on December 31 and the new Secretary General takes over in 2007.

Earlier this week, the South Korean Foreign Minister and Mr Tharoor received the most endorsements in the 15-member UN Security Council's straw poll for the next Secretary General.

In third place was Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai followed by Jordan's ambassador to the United Nations, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein.

Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dhanapala, a former UN disarmament official, was fifth in the race.

A Secretary General is elected for a five-year term but can be re-elected.

UNI

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