13 June 2004	Sunday	24 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

DHAKA, June 12: Bangladesh's foreign minister M. Morshed Khan is confident of securing the post of OIC's secretary-general for the country through consensus.

"We've campaigned for the last one and a half years for the post, and we have got direct and indirect support from the member states," Mr Khan told newsmen in Dhaka prior to his departure for Istanbul on Saturday to lead a nine-member delegation at the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers.

Ministers from Islamic countries meeting in Istanbul from June 14 to 16 will select the new secretary-general from three candidates put up by Bangladesh, Malaysia and Turkey in the 31st ICFM.

Asked if they would need to go for ballot for the top post of the 57-nation Muslim group in case of failure to reach a consensus at the Islamic Conference of foreign ministers, Mr Khan said a ballot had never taken place in the past. "We look for a united and unanimous position of the Islamic ummah, and we're very hopeful."

Bangladesh has proposed Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's advisor Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury. Malaysia has proposed the country's former permanent representative to the United Nations, Hasmy Agam, to replace the current secretary-general, Abdelouahed Belkeziz, a Moroccan whose term expires this year.

The Turkish candidate for the post is Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, head of the Istanbul-based OIC Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture.