Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai remains in the race and has a good chance to win the bid for the position of United Nations secretary-general despite still being ranked third in the latest straw vote, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

The new poll gave Surakiart nine votes in favour - two more than he received in July - three against and three "no opinion".

The secret vote made it impossible to tell who voted for or against any candidate. A "discourage" vote from one of the five veto-wielding permanent Security Council members sinks a candidacy.

The slender two-vote increase gave encouragement to Surakiart, whose team will continue lobbying international leaders during caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's visit to the UN General Assembly from next Tuesday to Thursday, said spokesman Kitti Wasinondh.

"Things can be changed before the end of the process," he said.

Kitti said Asean maintained strong support for Surakiart as that group's candidate, with current Asean chair the Philippines issuing a statement reiterating its support during a summit of the Non-aligned Movement in Havana. However, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon is the front runner in the race. The new poll on Thursday gave him 14 favourable votes and one "discourage", compared with 12 favourable votes, one "discourage" and two "no opinion" last time.

In second place was Shashi Tharoor of India, a novelist and the UN under-secretary-general for public information. He received 10 positive votes, three negatives and two "no opinion", the same as in July.

Jordan's UN ambassador, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein, came in fourth with six positive votes against four negatives and five "no opinion".

UN disarmament chief Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka came in last, with only three votes in favour, five against and seven "no opinion".

The secret poll only gives a hint of how the candidates might fare in the formal election later this year. It is largely meant to indicate whether they should remain in the race, and many diplomats say the person who will become the eighth secretary-general in the 61-year history of the United Nations has likely not yet come forward.

Most members states generally agree the next secretary-general should come from Asia, part of a tradition to rotate the job between regions. However, US Ambassador John Bolton has argued the job should go to the best-qualified candidate regardless of nationality.

The council has not decided when to hold its final vote to choose a secretary-general. Kofi Annan was himself elected on December 13, 1996 - just two weeks before he was to take office.