UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will name a veteran UN humanitarian relief official as his interim envoy to Iraq, UN sources said in New York Tuesday.  

Ross Mountain, a New Zealander, will temporarily replace Sergio Vieira de Mello, killed in the Aug. 19 bombing of the UN offices in Iraq.

Annan said earlier he will name an interim Iraqi envoy before the end of this year. When a new special representative to take over the duties of the late envoy, Mountain will become his deputy, the sources said.

Mountain is currently head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva. For more than a decade, he has been in the forefront of UN relief operations from Congo, East Timor and the West Bank to Afghanistan.

The world body has pulled its international staff out of Iraq following deadly bombings targeting UN staff in Iraq. Annan is expected to release a report Wednesday on his assessment of future UN operations in Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2003)