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Latvian President joins U.N. race

Vike-Freiberga is the first woman nominee

Washington: Noting that there were still several steps left in the process to select the next U.N. Secretary-General, the Bush Administration has said it would be looking for the best possible person and did not want to exclude any candidate from any part of the world despite a tradition of regional rotation.

U.S. agenda

Adding a new feature to the elections, a woman contender has joined the race with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga being nominated for the post.

``Our sense is we're looking for the best athlete for the job. And there's some very good candidates out there... we don't have anyone we're championing at this point,'' a senior administration official said at a briefing on President George W Bush's trip to the United Nations and the agenda.

"We know there's a tradition of regional rotations and so on, but... we don't want to exclude anyone from any part of the world, but our sense is we shouldn't be looking at it as an entitlement for one group or another but rather as let's look for the absolutely strongest possible leader,'' the official said.

India's Shashi Tharoor is among six candidates who are in the race for the post.

People, the U.S. official said, ``have pluses and minuses in any kind of job, but I think what you're looking for in this is somebody who has strong political leadership skills, strong management skills, people who can bring people together...''

Ms. Vike-Freiberga (68) is the first woman to be formally nominated for the post.

She was nominated by three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, asserting that she has shown the capacity to inspire a nation and hence is suitable for the post.

They sent an official letter to U.N. Security Council President Adamantios Vassilakis, to put her in the race, Council diplomats said. Her name would be in the next straw poll on Septembder 28. — AP, PTI

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