The U.S. envoy to the United Nations, John Bolton, pressed on Wednesday for a decision on the selection of the next secretary-general to lead the world body.

"It's time to come to a decision and the reason for that timing is we want the new secretary-general to have a full and adequate transition period," he told reporters at the UN headquarters.

The 15-member UN Security Council is scheduled to hold a straw poll on Thursday, the third since late July, among the seven officially announced candidates.

Council members were currently at odds over whether to distinguish the ballots of the permanent members and the non-permanent members by using different colors.

"Our view is that there should be (different colors). I think we've reached that time in the decision making process," Bolton said.

He said he was going to discuss within the council on whether or not to use the colored ballots in the secret vote.

"It would be useful to know where the permanent members stand at least anonymously but to know where they stand compared to the non-permanent members, since when we go to an actual vote, a no vote by a permanent member amounts to a veto," he said.

"There is some disagreement within the council on that point," he acknowledged.

UN diplomats said Britain was insisting on holding another straw poll without colored ballots to give the same chance to Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, who had both missed the two previous polls.

The other five candidates are UN Deputy Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor of India, Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, and Jayantha Dhanapala, a Sri Lankan presidential advisor and former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament.

Source: Xinhua