United Nations - The South Korean and Indian candidates to become the next UN secretarygeneral got a boost when most members of the Security Council encouraged them to stay in the race.

The other two candidates who have formally announced their desire to succeed SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan _ from Sri Lanka and Thailand _ did not do as well, according to the informal poll Monday of the 15 Security Council nations. The results were obtained by The Associated Press.

The secret poll only gives the faintest indication of how the two top votegetters _ South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Kimoon and Shashi Tharoor, UN undersecretarygeneral or public affairs _ might fare when the formal election takes place later this year.

Candidates can come forward until the last minute, and the final vote is not expected until the fall. A "no'' vote from one of the five vetowielding permanent members can sink a candidacy.

In the yesterday informal poll, the 15 council nations checked one of three boxes for each candidate : ``Encourage,'' ``discourage,'' and ``no opinion.''

Ban did the best, with 12 council nations encouraging him to run, one discouraging him and two giving no opinion. Tharoor, who is India's candidate, was next, with 10 votes of encouragement, two of discouragement and three giving no opinion.

The results for Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai were more ambiguous. He got seven votes of encouragement, three against, and five of no opinion.

The result was a major set back for the Thai government who claimed to have gathered endorsement from more than 130 countries, including China.

According to a Thai diplomatic source, Surakiart was said to be greatly disappointed at the result and lashed out at the foreign ministry accusing it not doing enough for his campaign.

Former Thai Ambassador to the UN, Asda Jayanama, said the government should withdraw Surakiart's bid and permits other Asean members to field candidate given the poor turnout of the straw vote.

Asda said Asean has other qualified candidates, such as former Singaporean PM Goh Chok Tong, former Malaysian Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim and former Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, whose names have surfaced in the regional groupings.

"Based on my personal experience, nearly six years at the UN as ambassador, I truly believe former Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan would have done much better than the existing candidates. But the Thai government is not open minded enough to nominate an opposition party member," Asda said.

The Tuesday's result was also also set back for Asean regional grouping whose foreign ministers are gathered in Kuala Lumpur for an annual meeting. They issued a statement on Monday saying Asean reaffirm its support for Surakiart and noted that the meeting discussed a campaign strategy for the Thai candidate.

Most diplomats generally agree that the next secretarygeneral should come from Asia, part of a tradition to rotate between regions in awarding the job. The UN chief can serve two fiveyear terms.

``It's good to have a good slate of candidates, and it's good to have the best possible slate of candidates,'' said Britain's Deputy UN Ambassador Karen Pierce. ``So we respect all those here on the slate at the moment, and we'd expect to see others.''

Other possible candidates include Kemal Dervis, the Turkish chief of the UN Development Program; Jordan's Prince Zeid alHussein, who is his country's UN ambassador.

In the past, those who ultimately became secretarygeneral emerged late in the process or hardly even campaigned for the job. That is partly because candidates become the object of intense diplomatic haggling between the five permanent members of the council _ Britain, China, France, Russia and the US

Annan, chosen in late 1996, was put forward as a lastminute compromise, while the Security Council selected Dag Hammarskjold in 1953 without telling him of his candidacy. Javier Perez de Cuellar was said to be vacationing on a beach in his native Peru when he heard he had been chosen in 1981.

There was no immediate announcement that any candidate had dropped out.

``That's obviously a question for the candidates themselves to decide based on their own assessment of how the vote went,'' US Ambassador John Bolton said.

The Nation and Associated Press