China on Thursday extended congratulations to Bulgaria's diplomat Irina Bokova, the new director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Bokova, 57 years old, won election after defeating Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni on Tuesday. As the first woman to lead the Paris-based UN agency, she will succeed Japan's Koichiro Matsuura, whose term ends in November.

"We believe that the new director-general will lead UNESCO to continually work on global education, international exchanges on science and technology and protection of cultural, natural and intangible cultural heritages," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"China is willing to continue to enhance its cooperation with UNESCO," Jiang said.

Bokova, the incumbent Bulgarian ambassador to France and Monaco, has been a member of the UNESCO Executive Board since 2007 and can speak English, Russian, French and Spanish besides her native tongue.

Bokova's appointment will be confirmed by the 193-member assembly of UNESCO, the 35th, scheduled for Oct. 15.

(Xinhua News Agency September 24, 2009)