DR Boutros Boutros Ghali, the Egyptian secretary general of the United Nations, will run for another five year term this year, his spokesman announced yesterday.
"The secretary general has decided to run for a second term as secretary general of the United Nations," the spokesman, Mr Ahmad Fawzi, said.
"Dr Boutros Ghali has taken this decision in view of the strong encouragement that he has received from member states. There is a lot of work that has been accomplished and there is a lot of work that remains to be done in this organisation," Mr Fawzi told a news conference.
There has been increasing speculation in recent weeks that the President, Mrs Robinson, might be a candidate for the post should it fall vacant. In an interview with the London Independent earlier this month, Mrs Robinson said there had been some "informal approaches" made to her about the UN job.
However, she said that it would be a "very difficult" decision to stand for the position.
Dr Boutros Ghali, a law professor and former deputy prime minister and acting foreign minister of Egypt, will turn 74 in November. In the same month the 185 seat Gene rat Assembly appoints a secretary general on recommendation of the 15 seat Security Council.
This procedure gives a decisive role to the five permanent Security Council members the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France, who each have a veto. While Dr Boutros Ghali appears to have the support of France, Russia and China, the big unanswered question is whether the United States will back him.
When Dr Boutros Ghali was first elected to the $286,000 a year (£190,000) UN post, he said he intended to serve only one term. But questioned about that at a May 1994 news conference, he replied. "I believe that only stupid people do not change their minds."
The US and British press as well as some American political figures, have been pushing women candidates in the past few weeks, particularly Mrs Robinson, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Ms Gro Harlem Brundtland, and the highly regarded UN High Commission for refugees, Ms Sadako Ogata.
While the United States can oppose a candidate, it will he hard pressed to convince other members to support an alternative of its choice.
Dr Bortrous Ghali has been blamed for UN peacekeeping debacles in Bosnia and in Somalia although in both cases his defenders argue he had little choice. Recently there was controversy when he authorised full publication of a UN report on the shelling of a compound at Qana, southern Lebanon, during the Israeli shelling against Hizbullah.