US lobbied UN climate head Pachauri to block Iranian scientist': WikiLeaks

New York, Dec.7 (ANI): Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the United Nations Inter-Inter-GPCC, was asked by US diplomats to help scupper the election of Dr Mostafa Jafari to the co-chairmanship of an IPCC "core working group", the whistle-blowing web site, WikiLeaks, has stated.

Dr Pachauri, a 70-year-old Indian engineer who has headed the UN-affiliated panel since 2002, "agreed to work" on the issue to avoid the potential for disruption to one of the organisation's three core working groups," the cable said.

According to The Telegraph, Dr Pachauri has denied this.

The claims are contained in a leaked cable sent to US missions around the world in September 2008, in the name of Condoleezza Rice, then the Secretary of State.

At the time, Dr Jafari was a candidate for the developing world's chairmanship on the IPCC's Working Group Two. Professor Christopher Field, an American, was to take the developed world's chairmanship.

The position eventually went to Vicente Ricardo Barros, a senior Argentine scientist.

Dr Pachauri could not be reached for comment.

A spokesman earlier told The Guardian that he "neither influenced, nor agreed to influence, the election. Not only would such an agreement be outside his mandate as chairman of the IPCC, but it would also be impossible to achieve."(ANI)