Thai candidate for top UN job gets coup blessing

BANGKOK, Sep 25: Thailand's candidate in the United Nations leadership race won complete backing today from the leaders of the country's first military coup in 15 years.

They appointed a 13-member team to help run the campaign of former Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai to succeed Kofi Annan as UN secretary-general and ordered the Foreign Ministry to finance it. The order, announced on television, came just before Surakiart and his new team left for New York to canvass support ahead of a third straw poll of 15 UN Security Council members on Thursday, his spokesman told Reuters.

''He has tomorrow evening and the whole of wednesday to hold as many meetings with relevant people as possible before the straw poll on Thursday,'' the spokesman said.

Despite finishing third of the then five candidates in the second secret poll early this month, Surakiart said he was pleased and his spokesman said past races showed front runners in straw polls did not necessarily get the final job. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Boon pulled ahead of the pack in the September 14 straw poll, but the race is still far from decided as a new candidate could jump in at the last moment before formal elections take place later this year.

Reuters

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