Michael von der Schulenburg, a German national and veteran UN staffer, has been appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to be his deputy special representative for political affairs in Iraq, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced on Friday.

Schulenburg joins the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) with almost 30 years of experience in international organizations, serving in various capacities with the United Nations in New York,Vienna, Haiti, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and Syria.

Most recently Schulenburg was director of the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan and was a director with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.

Annan is committed to doing everything possible to assist the new Iraqi government in the next phase of the country's political transition in accordance with Security Council resolution 1546, the spokesperson said.

The current UN special representative for political affairs in Iraq is Ashraf Qazi, who was named in July 2004.

Source: Xinhua