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With a global spotlight focused on his personal crusade (改革运动)against AIDS and solid support from rich and impoverished nations, Kofi Annan （科菲·安南）will be officially nominated and elected this week to a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations (联合国秘书长).

It's a far cry from （大不相同的）1996 when the United States blocked his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, from serving another five years.

Traditionally, the U.N.'s top job rotates every 10 years by region, and Africa should -- in theory -- be handing over the spacious office on the 38th floor of the U.N. Secretariat building to Asia on Jan. 1. But Annan will remain in the job, giving Africa an unprecedented 15 years at the helm of (领导地位）the world body.

The 15-member Security Council will officially nominate him today and the 189-member General Assembly is expected to elect him on Friday.

In an organization renowned for legendary battles over the choice of secretary-generals, the 63-year-old son of a Ghanaian businessman has had a remarkably easy ride on the road to a second term.

The 53-nation African group -- after testing the waters for any signs of opposition, especially from one of the five veto-wielding Security Council members -- announced in March it was backing him for another five years. A week later Annan announced his candidacy. The 50-nation Asian group -- badly divided on a candidate of its own -- then praised his "exemplary (典范的） leadership," all but clearing the way for this week's vote.

When Annan became the seventh U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, 1997, the world body was under attack on many fronts and at odds with the United States, which viewed Boutros-Ghali as anti-American.

"When he arrived, there was the idea that the U.N. had reached rock bottom (最底点）," said Mats Berdal, director of studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The United Nations had failed to prevent or stop the 1994 genocide （种族屠杀）in Rwanda and the July 1995 Serb slaughter of Muslims in the U.N.-declared "safe zone" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The legacy of the failed U.N. peacekeeping mission on Somalia also lingered, particularly in the United States, which lost 18 soldiers in a botched U.S. raid in the capital Mogadishu in 1993, he said.

But nearly five years later, the United Nations is playing major peacekeeping roles on several continents with missions in Ethiopia-Eritrea, East Timor and Kosovo. Elsewhere in Africa, U.N. peacekeepers are trying to help the government of Sierra Leone enforce a cease-fire, and to end the continent's largest war in Congo.

While Boutros-Ghali asked tough questions and was "very undiplomatic, causing all sorts of offense left, right, and center," Annan is "a consensus builder" and has been more effective, Berdal said.

"I think he's been a good secretary-general," said Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Ronald Reagan. "I think he's a reasonable and a sensible man, and he's not anti-American."

Annan used his first term to focus global attention on Africa's conflicts, poverty and the AIDS epidemic (流行性傳染病） -- now the focus of an unprecedented three-day AIDS conference which concludes today. He has also trimmed U.N. bureaucracy and spearheaded an overhaul (大检修）of peacekeeping operations.

He won praise for those initiatives, but has also been criticized for trying to negotiate with Saddam Hussein and for standing by as U.N. peacekeepers were kidnapped by Sierra Leone rebels, among other things.

Still, his calming style of leadership has been a welcome force at the United Nations. He was the first secretary-general elected from the ranks of the U.N. staff, having served as undersecretary-general for peacekeeping when he was tapped for the top job.

Abdul Razak Bagunda, executive director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center, a think tank (智囊团）, said Annan has the support of developing countries and the five permanent council members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

"He is regarded as someone who generates confidence from both," Bagunda said.

Associated Press