The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday approved the nomination of Kemal Dervis, a Turkish lawmaker and financial expert, as head of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP). The 191-nation assembly confirmed Dervis, who was selected by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Britain, Kuwait, Japan, Norway and the Netherlands also submitted candidates, but they were not accepted by Annan, who broke with a U.N. tradition by advertising vacancies for high positions. In the past, secretaries general selected high-ranking U.N. officials at their discretion. Dervis will replace Mark Mallock Brown, a former British World Bank official who became Annan's chief of staff. Dervis is the first national from a developing country to head the UNDP, which disburses more than 1 billion dollars a year to development projects in poor countries. ---SP 0002 Local Time 2102 GMT
