United Nations: Sri Lanka has withdrawn its candidate from the race to succeed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan but more may join the field before Monday's decisive straw poll in the Security Council.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon has emerged the front-runner for the job with India's nominee Shashi Tharoor finishing second in three such informal polls.
Colombo on Friday withdrew the name of Jayantha Dhanapala, a career diplomat and former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament, saying it did not want to further pursue his candidature in the interest of ensuring a consensus in electing an Asian candidate.
A candidate needs at least nine votes in favour and no veto from any of the permanent council members - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China.
In Monday's straw poll, coloured ballots will be used to distinguish the veto holders from the other 10 council members, elected for two-year terms.
In Thursday's informal poll, Ban received 13 votes in favour, one less than in the previous balloting. In second place was Tharoor, the UN undersecretary-general for public information, with eight favourable votes followed by Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the only woman and non-Asian in the race, with seven positive votes.
Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, whose country had a coup last week, received five votes.
Dhanapala, Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid al Hussein and former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani received three votes each.
The next Secretary-General is to come from Asia because the job traditionally rotates among regions. The last Asian in the post was U Thant of Burma, who held office from 1961 to 1971.
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