The United States plans to break with tradition and force a vote at the UN's top human rights body in a bid to stop Libya taking the chair at the March annual session.
Western diplomats said today Washington would take the unusual step of demanding a ballot at a January 20th preparatory meeting of the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission.
Washington has in the past accused the Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gadafy, of backing terrorism, and although relations have been improving, it was not ready to see Libya take over such a sensitive post unopposed, diplomats said.
The chairmanship of the Commission, whose annual session in Geneva runs from March 17th-April 25th, is traditionally awarded by rotation, with the right to name the candidate falling each year to one of the body's five regional groupings.
Never since the Commission was launched in 1947 has a regional choice of chairman been put to a ballot, even in the depths of the Cold War, UN officials said.
This year it was Africa's turn and despite intense international pressure, not just from the United States, African countries have stuck by Libya as their candidate.