SOUTH KOREA’S Foreign Minister emerged yesterday as the clear front-runner to become the next United Nations Secretary-General.

Ban Ki Moon won support from 14 of the 15 Security Council members in the latest straw poll to pick a successor to Kofi Annan at the end of the year.

The secret ballot came when Mr Ban was in Washington for a summit between President Bush and Roh Moo Hyun, the South Korean leader.

“We are determined to make a decision on the next Secretary-General by the end of September or early October, so we are going to press ahead in that direction,” John Bolton, Washington’s UN Ambassador, said.

The cautious Mr Ban, who became Foreign Minister in January 2004, has played a key role in the North Korean nuclear stand-off, where South Korea is a partner of China, Japan, Russia and the United States in six-party talks with Pyongyang.

He told The Washington Times that there was a “perception gap” between the two allies on North Korea and other issues, but added that the alliance remained fundamentally healthy. Rivals in the UN race have complained privately that South Korea was using its economic strength to reward countries that supported its candidate. Speculation among diplomats was that the only “no” vote was cast by Japan.

Most UN members believed that the next UN chief should come from Asia under an informal system of rotation, because Asian nations agreed to support Boutros Boutros Ghali and Mr Annan for three consecutive African turns. Mr Ban made a surprisingly strong showing yesterday, picking up two more positive votes than he did in the Security Council’s first straw poll in July.

Second place in yesterday’s poll went again to Shashi Tharoor, a top UN official from India with ten positive votes and three against.

In third place was Surakiart Sathirathai, the Thai Deputy Prime Minister, who received nine votes in favour and three against.

He was followed by the only new entry, Jordan’s UN Ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, who got six votes with four against. In last place was Jayantha Dhanapala, of Sri Lanka, the former head of the UN disarmament department, who received three votes with five against.

Mr Ban’s lead will be unassailable unless the lone “no” vote in the secret ballot came from one of the council’s five veto powers — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.

Even then, it would be hard for the hold-out not to bow to the groundswell of support among other council members. “We could be quite close, we could be quite far — depending on one thing,” said Vitali Churkin, Russia’s UN Ambassador.

Under a prior agreement a further straw poll is to be held on September 28 under different rules that will make clear if a “no” vote comes from a veto power.

Once a consensus is reached the Security Council will hold a formal vote and forward its candidate to be endorsed by the 192-member UN General Assembly.

Adamantios Vassilakis, the Greek UN Ambassador, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, predicted that Mr Ban would prevail and said that council members should hold a formal vote this month.

“I believe if we vote we will have a decision by the end of the month,” he said. “For the Sri Lankan it’s not worth it to continue and the others have too many discouragements in order to go ahead. I believe that whoever is coming in now, it’s too late.”

According to UN convention, the next Secretary- General should come from Asia. Jordan is considered part of the Asian regional group at the United Nations.

Mr Annan is the seventh Secretary-General in the 61-year-history of the United Nations. A Secretary-General is selected for a five-year term but can be re-elected. The Security Council selects a Secretary-General, who then has to be confirmed by the General Assembly.

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