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Ex-Russian envoy

to oversee return

of Kuwaiti prisoners

UNITED NATIONS: The former Russian ambassador to Washington, Yuli Vorontsov, has been named to a senior UN post overseeing the return of Kuwaiti prisoners and property seized by Iraq, diplomats said on Friday.

The issue is one of the thorniest dating from the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, and the United Nations Security Council reiterated Iraq's obligations when it overhauled its sanctions regime in December.

Kuwait says about 600 people are still unaccounted for since the invasion, but the council did not link Iraq's compliance on this issue with the suspension of sanctions. That depends upon Iraq's cooperation with the new UN arms inspection body, UNMOVIC.

Diplomats said, Annan had written to members of the council on Thursday informing them of his decision to appoint Vorontsov.

Council approval would be automatic unless any member objected before 11:00 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Monday, they said.

Vorontsov will be an under Secretary General of the UN, the rank held by heads of department answering directly to Annan.

Annan's spokesman's office said an official announcement would be made on Monday giving the name of the new high-level coordinator for the return of missing persons and Kuwaiti property.

Vorontsov, 70, began a long and distinguished diplomatic career in 1954 when he joined the mission to the United Nations of what was then the Soviet Union.

He was deputy foreign minister of the Soviet Union from 1986 to 1990, serving also as ambassador to Afghanistan is 1988 and 1989. From 1990 to 1994 he was Russia's permanent representative to the UN and in that capacity took the rotating presidency of the Security Council every 15 months.

In 1994 he was appointed Russian ambassador to Washington, a position he held until last year, when Annan named him special envoy to the Commonwealth of Independent States.ÑAFP