WASHINGTON, March 12: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed a Muslim woman her senior adviser on UN reforms.

Shirin Tahir-Kheli is a US citizen of Pakistani origin. The State Department announced on Friday that Ambassador Tahir-Kheli would serve as the secretary’s senior adviser and chief interlocutor on the United Nations reforms.

Tahir-Kheli served as special assistant to the president and senior director for democracy, human rights and international operations at the US National Security Council from 2003-05.

Previously, she was a research professor and founding director of the South Asia Programme at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Tahir-Kheli served as head of the US delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2001, and alternate US representative to the United Nations for special political affairs from 1990 to 1993.

She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Ms Tahir-Kheli previously served on the National Security Council as Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs from 1986-89, and as Director of Political Military Affairs from 1984-86. Earlier, she was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the Department of State.