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The World Health Organization's (WHO) executive board on Monday cut to five the number of candidates shortlisted to take over as chief of the UN health agency, diplomats said.

Hong Kong's former Health Director Margaret Chan; Shigeru Omi of Japan, who heads the agency's Western Pacific regional office; and Mexico's Health Minister Julio Frenk were amongst those shortlisted.

The other two were Kuwait's Kazem Behbehani, a WHO official, and Spain's Health Minister Elena Salgado.

The five will each be interviewed today by the 34-state executive board that will convene again tomorrow to name a candidate to be recommended to the World Health Assembly, the 193-state WHO's top decision-making body. The assembly meets on Thursday.

Among the candidates who didn't make the shortlist was French politician Bernard Kouchner, who founded the non-profit Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières, which sends volunteer medical personnel to underdeveloped countries and other trouble spots around the world. He was France's health minister in the 1990s before becoming the first UN administrator in Kosovo.

The other nominees were Health Ministers David A. Gunnarsson of Iceland; the former Prime Minister of Mozambique, Manuel Mocumbi; Kazem Behbehani, a senior WHO official from Kuwait; Nay Htun, a former high-ranking UN development and environment official from Myanmar; Pekka Puska, head of Finland's National Health Institute; and Tomris Turmen from Turkey who heads WHO's family health division.

Anders Nordstrom, who has been acting director-general since Director-General Lee Jong-wook died in May, said there is no formal regional rotation for the leadership position.

"It's partly political," Nordstrom told reporters on Friday. "With these kinds of positions, there is a political dimension as always. Health is political as well. That is what WHO is about. We are a governmental organization where member states get together and agree on a global health politics. It is not party politics, but it is also politics in some of our governing body work."

Observers say Hong Kong native Chan, who was the WHO's top official for pandemic influenza as well as the assistant director-general for communicable diseases, stands a good chance of getting the job with the backing of China and other Asian countries.

Mexico's Frenk is the only candidate from the Americas after Ecuadorean President Alfredo Palacio Gonzalez dropped out of the running last week. Frenk is credited with revamping the country's health system by introducing an insurance system for the poor.

Frenk has been criticized by anti-tobacco groups for allegedly imposing lighter restrictions than demanded by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which Mexico has ratified.

But the complex horse-trading for votes between board members means that hard predictions are difficult to make. Votes cast by the WHO's executive board are also secret ballots, making accountability difficult.

The late Lee Jong-wook took over as director-general of the WHO in 2003 as the agency was winding up its battle against the worldwide SARS outbreak. He died of a brain hemorrhage, aged 61.

(China Daily November 7, 2006)