UNITED NATIONS, July 25 (UPI) -- South Korea's foreign minister has won the first straw poll to succeed Kofi Annan as the next U.N. secretary-general, the Financial Times reports.
Ban Ki-Moon beat Shashi Tharoor, the United Nations' head of information, for the most influential role in the world body, the newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
The poll among members of the U.N. Security Council is the first of many steps before a new secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly, the newspaper said.
Details of who supported whom were not clear, the newspaper said.
The secretary-general is appointed by the U.N. General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. The straw poll followed a statement by U.S. President George W. Bush conceding to the principle of regional rotation for the U.N. secretariat post.
Asia believes its turn has arrived to provide the world's top diplomat, a contention supported by permanent members China and Russia, the Financial Times said. Asia has not held the job since Burma's U Thant retired in 1971 who won the post after Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash in September 1961.
