Updated on Thursday, June 08, 2006, 00:00 IST

United Nations, June 08: Haya Rashed al-Khalifa, a former ambassador to France and one of the first women to practice law in Bahrain, will be elected president of the UN General Assembly today, a spokeswoman for the assembly has said.

Khalifa is to succeed Jan Eliasson, who is also Sweden's Foreign Minister. She will become the third woman to preside over the 191-member assembly after Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India in 1953 and Angie E Brooks of Liberia in 1969.

Her choice was approved by the assembly's Asian bloc, which under a regional rotation system, is tasked with choosing the next president, spokeswoman Pragato Pascale said.

A lawyer by training, Khalifa, 53, was one of the first two women to practice law in Bahrain and she defended women before Islamic Sharia courts.

She is currently legal adviser to the royal court in Bahrain, the spokeswoman said yesterday.

Bureau Report