The election for a new United Nations secretary-general is more than a year away, but Sri Lanka [Images] has already started a sustained campaign for its candidate -- career diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has written letters to all 191 member states emphasising Dhanapala's qualifications and seeking their support, but diplomats say it is too early for any country to make up its mind as they expect several other candidates to throw their hat in the ring for the $250,000 a year job.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan steps down at the end of his second term on December 31, 2006, and the political drama leading to the election of a new incumbent is not expected to start before the fall of 2006.

In an interview with PTI, Dhanapala agreed that history shows more and more candidates seeking the "world's most impossible job", as UN's first secretary-general Trygve Lie had described it, would come in the field.

However, Dhanapala is not the only one who has officially declared the candidacy.

Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai has not only offered himself for the job, but also got endorsement from Association of Southeast Asian Nations. And others are sitting in the wings to emerge at a time they consider appropriate. A candidate being mentioned is President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland. 

Kwasniewski has not officially declared himself as a candidate, but diplomats say that he might have the support of the United States. However, they expect Russians to oppose his candidacy for historical reasons and say that Moscow [Images] might be prepared to use veto if pressed.

Besides, China has promised to support only an Asian candidate.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon too has shown an interest in the job and had in a recent interview expressed the view that his country could serve as a bridge between the developed and developing countries. He has 35 years of experience as a diplomat and had played a key role in the six-party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear weapon programme.

A secretary-general is selected by the 15-member Security Council where the United States, Russia [Images], Britain, France [Images] and China have a veto, and elected by the General Assembly on the council's recommendation. Hence a potential candidate has to woo not only the council members, but also general membership.

Dhanapala says preliminary contacts have already taken place with officials of the US National Security Council and the state department. He had also met with US Ambassador to UN John Bolton. Asked whether he would seek endorsement from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to counteract ASEAN's endorsement of Sasthirathai, Dhanapala says he has not yet decided on that.

The Sri Lankan foreign ministry is still considering the issue.

"We are not sure whether the endorsement would be the best way to proceed," he adds. Since SAARC countries have either not yet made up their mind or at least have not announced their thinking, diplomats say it is difficult to say how much support Dhanapala enjoys among them and whether they would be prepared to take up his case aggressively. 

Dhanapala points out that this is Asia's turn to provide a secretary-general under a system of rotation, which has been agreed to by the United Nations and that South Asia is preeminently suited as the region had never held the post.

U Thant, a diplomat from Myanmar, was secretary-general from 1961 to 1971. But Dhanapala argues that he was from South East Asia and not South Asia. Besides, he says it is the convention that smaller and medium size countries provide secretary general and not the larger ones.

"What we have been doing so far is to conduct a discreet campaign informing all the 191 governments of the United Nations about my candidature and advancing my qualifications. We do not think the post of the secretary-general is analogous to that of a head of government or any political office in a country. It is a symbol of the United Nations and we think the approach to the next secretary general must be undertaken with some dignity and respect for the post," he stresses.

That is the reason why he is presenting his qualifications for the consideration of the membership, especially the Security Council, he says.

Asked what makes him a suitable candidate for the post, he says he had experience both inside and outside the United Nations.

"That gives me a unique perspective as both insider and outsider to help implement managerial reforms that are so much a priority at this juncture of the UN," he says.

Dhanapala was Sri Lanka's ambassador to UN in Geneva and also to the US and then worked as secretary-general for Disarmament Affairs from 1998 to 2003.