“The Secretary-General values Mr. Gambari’s recent service to the Organization as Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and he looks forward to working with him in this new capacity,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson, Michele Montas, said in a statement announcing the appointment.

“Based at Headquarters, the Special Adviser’s role with regard to the International Compact with Iraq will be to ensure coordinated support from the United Nations System to the implementation of commitments made, through the Compact, toward a peaceful, secure and prosperous Iraq,” she said.

Launched in July, 2006, the Compact aims to help Iraq consolidate peace and pursue political, economic and social development over the next five years.

Mr. Gambari was previously named chief of the Political Affairs Department in July, 2005. Before that he served as Special Adviser on Africa and headed the UN Mission in Angola. He was Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UN from 1999 until 2002.

The new Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, took office yesterday along with the new Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, and the new Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management Services, Muhammad Shaaban.

Taking their oath of office in a special ceremony in the Secretary General’s conference room today, they signed a declaration promising to “exercise in all loyalty, discretion and conscience the functions entrusted to them as international civil servants.”