United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has decided to appoint a veteran humanitarian official from New Zealand, Ross Mountain, as his interim envoy in Iraq.

He would temporarily take over the duties of Sergio Vieirra De Mello who was killed in a suicide attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad on August 19, diplomats and officials said in New York. The UN had withdrawn its staff from Baghdad in the wake of the attack in which 22 people, including de Mello, were killed.

Mountain, who is currently director of UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, will become deputy envoy once Annan appoints him as his representative.