Shashi Tharoor is a prize-winning author as well as UN diplomat

India's Shashi Tharoor is a career UN diplomat, having worked in the world body for nearly three decades.

The 50-year-old under secretary-general for communications and public information in the UN is said to be eloquent and excellent at public diplomacy.

In the July straw polls, held at the Security Council, Mr Tharoor, who is close to Kofi Annan, polled the second highest.

Born in London and educated in India and the US, he worked first with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and then oversaw peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia.

In recent interview with the BBC, Mr Tharoor said he believed passionately in the UN and saw it "as a force that can make a real difference in the world".

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington in early September, he said that if he were elected, he would focus speeding up the deployment of UN peacekeepers to conflict areas as part of UN reforms.

"One manifest problem is speed of deployment," he said. "We simply don't get our soldiers (into conflict areas) quickly enough."

He has also said that poverty eradication, children's education, mainly for girls, and healthcare were some pressing issues that needed urgent attention, especially in Africa which is prone to natural disasters and diseases

He says that if chosen, he would also seek to heal divisions between wealthy and developing countries over reform of the world organisation.

But some commentators have said that Mr Tharoor's experience may count against him. Some say that a senior insider may not be the person to deliver the radical reforms that they believe the organisation needs.

Mr Tharoor is also a prize-winning author. His political satire The Great Indian Novel focuses on India's struggle for independence.