- Reuters
Incoming United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon (left) shakes hands with outgoing secretary-general Kofi Annan outside the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York yesterday. The U.N. General Assembly approved South Korea's foreign minister yesterday as the next U.N. secretary-general, a post he will assume on January 1.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters):

The United Nations General Assembly approved South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon yesterday as the next U.N. secretary-general, a post he will assume on January 1.

Ban, 62, is the first Asian leader since Burma's U Thant led the United Nations from 1961-1971. Asian nations had insisted it was their turn for the job to succeed Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian, who has led the 192-member world body for the past decade.

He will be the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations since 1946.

The 15-member U.N. Security Council recommended Ban as the next secretary-general to the General Assembly after he comfortably beat six rivals in informal council polls. The General Assembly acclaimed him secretary-general by acclamation for a five-year term.

Exceptionally attuned

In remarks to the General Assembly after it approved Ban, Annan described his successor as "a future secretary-general who is exceptionally attuned to the sensitivities of countries and constituencies in every continent."

"A man with a truly global mind at the helm of the world's only universal organisation," he said, adding that he wished Ban strength and courage as he readied to take over the job and to "have fun along the way."

Born to a farming family in 1944 - toward the end of the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula - Ban has moved inexorably up the ranks of the Foreign Ministry, which he joined in 1970 straight after university where he graduated top of his class in international relations.He was appointed Foreign Minister in January 2004.