Thai candidate to drop bid

The announcement comes after an informal poll, which gave a clear majority to South Korean candidate Ban Ki-Moon.

Thailand's new interim Prime Minister said on Thursday that Surakiart Sathirathai, the country's candidate for secretary-general of the United Nations, is dropping his bid for the job.

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The announcement came after an informal poll of the 15 Security Council nations gave South Korea's foreign minister near-certain victory in the contest to succeed Kofi Annan.

Jordan's UN ambassador dropped out of the race on Wednesday.

A Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, Kitti Wasinondh, said he did not know if Surakiart's candidacy had already been officially withdrawn, but "he accepts the result" of the poll.