United Nations: Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga joined the race to be the next UN secretary-general, becoming the first woman and the first non-Asian vying for the UN's top post.
The former psychology professor who has led the Baltic nation since 1999 became on Friday the sixth candidate to replace Kofi Annan when his second five-year term ends on December 31.
She faces an uphill struggle because most members states generally agree that the next secretary-general should come from Asia, part of a tradition to rotate the job between regions.
But US Ambassador John Bolton has argued that the job should go to the best qualified candidate - regardless of nationality.
Vike Freiberga was nominated by the three Baltic nations - Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania - who are part of the East European group at the United Nations which has argued that it has never had a secretary-general.
In a joint letter to the Security Council president, their UN ambassadors said ''the president of Latvia has proved the capacity of a woman to lead and inspire a nation.''
''The favorable consideration of President Vaira Vike-Freiberga ... would be a tangible demonstration of the principle of gender equality, so tirelessly defended by the United Nations over the last 60 years,'' the Baltic envoys said.
Coming from a relatively small country which has recently undergone a transition from communism to a free democratic government, she ''highly values the role of multilateral diplomacy in preventing and minimizing threats to global peace, security and prosperity.''
In an informal poll of the 15 Security Council members on Thursday - before Vike-Freiberga entered the race - South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon came in first followed by India's Shashi Tharoor, the UN undersecretary-general for public affairs, and Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai.
Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein, a late entry to the race and the only Muslim candidate, came in fourth and former UN disarmament chief Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka was last.
The secret poll is largely meant to indicate whether the candidates should remain in the race, and some diplomats say the person who will become the eighth secretary-general in the United Nations' 60-year history may not yet have come forward.
Greece's UN Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis said Thursday that council members would meet again on Sept. 28 and would have to decide whether to take another straw poll without any indication of which countries are opposed to a candidate, a straw poll where opposition from the five veto-wielding council nations would be revealed, or a final vote.
Vike-Freierga is likely to face difficulty because China - a veto-wielding council member - has repeatedly said it wants an Asian candidate, and Russia is likely to be reluctant to endorse the leader of one of its former republics for such a prestigious position.
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