Spaniard named head of UN Afghanistan mission
07:07 p.m Jan 17, 2000 Eastern

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Spaniard Francesc Vendrell on Monday to be his personal representative and head of the U.N. Special Mission to Afghanistan, a U.N. spokesman said.

Vendrell, a political affairs official, has been a driving force in the U.N. bureaucracy behind efforts to conduct a vote in the former Portuguese territory of East Timor, having nudged three secretaries-general to give the issue attention.

He holds an international law degree and has been with the United Nations since 1968.

Annan said he wanted to bolster the U.N. political presence in Afghanistan and attempt to restart abortive peace talks between the country's ruling Taleban leaders and an opposition northern alliance.

Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister resigned his post as special representative in October, saying Afghanistan's neighbours and the Taleban were making a mockery of the talks.

Annan froze the post but also said he would try to move the U.N. mission's headquarters from Islamabad, Pakistan, to the Afghan capital of Kabul. Vendrell will combine Brahimi's job as well as head of the mission.

The United Nations withdrew international staff from Kabul in 1998 after U.S. missile strikes in Afghanistan against suspected bases of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, charged with masterminding the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 which killed more than 200 people.

The U.N. Security Council in October imposed air and financial sanctions on the Taleban until it hands over bin Laden, thereby further straining ties between Afghan's rulers and the United Nations.