Malaysia said it was backing Thailand's former deputy prime minister for the top job at the United Nations when Secretary General Kofi Annan's term expires at the end of the year.

The foreign ministry said it supported Surakiart Sathirathai, one of three officials from Asia who have announced their candidacies. Singapore and Indonesia are also backing him.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon and Jayantha Dhanapala, an advisor to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, have also put their names forward.

Asia has not had a UN chief since Myanmar's U Thant finished his second term in 1971, and Annan has said that he should be replaced by an Asian in line with the world body's informal tradition of regional rotation.

Surakiart had already won the backing of the the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and the foreign ministry said that Malaysia "would like to reiterate that support," the official Bernama news agency reported yesterday.