US wants decision now on Secretary-General race

United Nations, Sept 28: US Ambassador John Bolton pushed for a quick resolution in the race to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General, an action that could favor the South Korean front-runner.

UN Security Council members today conduct another straw poll among seven declared candidates, which could show whether South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon retains the lead he held in two previous straw polls.

''We are at the point where we should make a decision,'' Bolton told reporters, adding that a new secretary-general, who would take office on Jan. 1, needed a transition period.

At issue among Security Council members is whether to use colored ballots to distinguish votes between veto-bearing members, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, and the other 10 elected nations, who serve for two years.

Should such a vote be held, favored by Bolton as well as Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, the prospective winner would be a candidate who receives a minium of nine votes and no veto.

But Britain, council diplomats said, favored a straw poll without veto rights, because two candidates, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the only woman in the race, and former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, had entered late and should have the chance for a straw poll.

Britain is known to want to keep the race open for any other candidate who might want to run whereas colored ballots, in practice, could end the contest.

But Bolton said, ''We have said for some time we want to try and reach this decision by the end of September, early October, and so plenty of time has elapsed for us to go to the differentiated ballot.'' Behind Ban in the previous poll was Shashi Tharoor of India, a novelist and the UN undersecretary-general for public information, followed by Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand's deputy prime minister; Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein; and Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament.

ASIAN SECRETARY-GENERAL

The Security Council selects the new secretary-general, who then has to be confirmed by the 192-member General Assembly. UN tradition deems that the next secretary-general come from Asia.

The job as the world's top diplomat has changed over the years, but Bolton said the first priority was to be the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and institute management reforms.

Even Ban has some qualms about that. He told the Asia Society on Monday that many of the administrative operations would be left to a deputy.

Annan, a Ghanaian and Nobel peace prize winner, steps down on Dec. 31 after two five-year terms as the world body's leader, tarnished in part by scandals that rocked the organization.

But like his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Annan has championed causes, commented on many world issues, and negotiated numerous peace pacts or cease-fires.

Many experts believe this approach will change little, regardless of promises made by a candidate.

But Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor and expert on the United Nations, believes it is time for a UN leader to do less, despite pressures to do more.

Both Boutros-Ghali and Annan ''confused the passing glories of pronouncing on all the world's causes with the hard, steady and often quiet work of rebuilding the office of secretary-general so that its ambitions are more in line with its powers,'' Luck said.

REUTERS