The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that China would continue its insistence that the next UN secretary-general should come form Asia.

 

"It is a common desire of Asian nations and has been widely supported by the international community that next UN secretary-general should come from Asia," ministry spokesman Qing Gang said. "China will continue to support an Asian candidate," he added.

 

The Security Council will hold the fourth "straw poll" for UN secretary-general on October 2.

 

There are seven declared candidates:

 

l         Ban Ki-Moo, foreign minister of South Korea

 

l         Shashi Tharoor, the Indian UN undersecretary-general

 

l         Surakiart Sathirathai, Thailand's former deputy prime minister

 

l         Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Jordan's UN ambassador

 

l         Ashraf Ghani, former Afghan finance minister

 

l         Jayantha Dhanapala, a Sri Lankan presidential advisor and former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament

 

l         Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Latvian president

 

All are from Asia except Vike-Freiberga.

 

Qin said China held a positive and open attitude to all the Asian candidates.

 

"We think there is no doubt that a new UN secretary-general with ability and prestige, who can be accepted by all sides, can come from these Asian candidates."

 

"It is not fair to doubt the ability of the Asian candidates and we cannot accept this," he said.

 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's second five-year term will end on December 31.

 

The UN Charter allows the Security Council to nominate a candidate who is then be approved by the UN General Assembly.

 

The Security Council has held three informal polls, all of which put South Korea's Ban in top place.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2006)