UNITED NATIONS, Feb 1 (AFP) - The United Nations confirmed Tuesday it had offered former US president Bill Clinton the job of UN special envoy for tsunami relief, and that Clinton had accepted.
"The Secretary General has indeed offered to former US president Bill Clinton the position of his Special Envoy for Tsunami-affected Countries and president Clinton has accepted," a spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a brief statement.
"The Secretary General is confident that president Clinton will bring energy, dynamism and focus to the task of sustaining world interest in the vital recovery and reconstruction phase following the tsunami disaster that hit south Asia on 26 December 2004," the statement said.
"He (Annan) believes that no one could possibly be better qualified for this task," it added.
Annan and Clinton will make a joint appearance later this month to provide more details on Clinton's appointment when the former US leader returns from a visit to the region with former US president George Bush.
Clinton and his predecessor Bush have already been asked by current US President George W. Bush to lead private US fundraising efforts for the victims of the December 26 killer waves, which left more than 289,000 people dead.
Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wanted to name a special envoy "to keep world attention focused on the clean up and the reconstruction."
Earlier Tuesday, Eckhard said the United Nations also wanted to "capitalize on the openings that it has afforded both Indonesia and Sri Lanka to make political advances with the rebel movements in those two countries."
02/01/2005 22:15 GMT - AFP