General Assembly to appoint new UN leader Friday

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 12 (Reuters) The UN General Assembly plans to appoint South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as UN secretary-general tomorrow, giving him time for a transition before becoming assuming the post on January one.

Under UN procedures, the 15 UN Security Council members recommend a candidate to the 192-member General Assembly, which has to endorse the nomination. The council voted on Ban on Monday, and the assembly is expected to approve him by acclamation.

Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, spokeswoman for the assembly, yesterday said the confirmation of Ban's candidacy was set for Friday afternoon, as South Korea had requested and regional groups approved.

''We expect him to take the oath of office as soon as he is officially appointed but he doesn't take office until January one,'' Sainte said.

Ban, making his first appearance at the United Nations yesterday since his nomination by the Security Council two days earlier, met U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, ambassadors from Asian nations and visiting US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.

Ban told reporters he had three priorities as secretary-general.

One was being ''effective and relevant in discharging our duties to coordinate all the agendas and challenges which we face in the 21st century.'' The second was to try ''to bring trust and confidence among member states,'' he said.

''And thirdly I will try to ensure to consolidate and coordination among the organizations to use the limited resources and manpower for the utmost strength, trying to reduce the redundancies and overlappings,'' Ban said.

''Our organisation has been overstretched, we have limited resources, limited manpower. We need to provide more to keep our promises delivered to the needy places,'' he added.

Ban, 62, is the first secretary-general from an Asian country since U Thant of Burma held the post from 1961 to 1971. Asian nations had insisted that it was their turn for the job to succeed Annan, a Ghanaian.

Ban comfortably beat six rivals in informal polls the Security Council conducted.

Born to a farming family in 1944 -- toward the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula -- Ban has moved inexorably up the ranks of the Foreign Ministry, which he joined in 1970 straight after university where he graduated top of his class in international relations.

He was appointed foreign minister in January 2004.

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