UN (Reuters) - The 192-nation UN General Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved a second five-year period of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, which analysts and diplomats see a solid ally of Washington. A former South Korean foreign minister, who took over as UN secretary-general from his predecessor Kofi Annan in 2007, was re-elected for the top job at the world body by acclamation, effective next January 1. Ban, 67, was unopposed, making his re-election a virtual certainty after the Security Council last week recommended that he continue to head the United Nations. He thanked UN member states to "a great honor," they gave him, but later told reporters that he had a lot of unfinished business. "Obviously, we have to go far," Ban said. "Too many people are deprived of basic human rights. Too many people are hungry. Too many children are dying every day." "Rarely has the United Nations to be more relevant, and it has never been so necessary," he added. U.S. Ambassador to UN Susan Rice welcomed Ban's re-election and praised his work in "one of the toughest jobs in the world." "No one understands the burdens of that role better than him," Rice said, adding that Washington was "grateful that he is willing to accept them." All the regional groups of UN Member States supported the Pan, including Latin America and the Caribbean, the latter formally endorse his re-election. UN officials and diplomats said Cuba, Barbados and other groups raised the approval of the complaints that Pan has forgotten the region. Havana denied causing delays. Under an unwritten rule of the UN Secretary General job rotates among regions of the world and can not be held citizen of one of the five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. The mixed results It is normal for the current five-year term to serve two, even though Egypt, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was ousted after one term in 1996, the United States, which felt that he performed poorly because of the war in Bosnia. Despite the clash with Moscow over Kosovo in 2008, UN diplomats said, prompting a threat to veto his second term, Pan worked hard to avoid violations of the Board of the five veto powers. Diplomats and analysts say that Pan was especially sensitive to the wishes of the United States, which houses the UN headquarters in New York, and was a firm ally of Washington. This led to some grumbling on the left-wing governments in Latin America and some ambassadors from developing countries. Hillel Neuer, the head of the Geneva-based group Human Rights Watch welcomed Ban's re-election, saying that "principled leader who has enhanced the protection of human rights in some of the most troubled areas of the world." Man Rights Watch, however, accused him of being too soft on China. Analysts say Ban, known for his self-deprecating manner and an imperfect knowledge of English as a tireless worker and an avid world-trotter, but said that his tenure so far have been mixed on it appeared. Global UN talks on climate change have made little progress, and the UN's role in the fight against poverty around the world has been challenged by the growth of the Group of 20 countries. Years of UN mediation in the conflict with Cyprus to Western Sahara yielded no results so far. Ban won success in Côte d'Ivoire this year with hard-line UN election results, which led to the overthrow of Laurent Gbagbo, who clung to the presidency, despite the settlement agreement, which he lost his voice. Pan also won praise for his promotion of "Arab spring" of democratic movements that swept the Middle East and North Africa, and his personal appeals to the autocratic rulers of the region not to use force against protesters.
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