UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has chosen Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, currently the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as his special representative forIraq for an initial four-month period, according to sources.
Mr de Mello (54) succeeded former president of Ireland, Mrs Mary Robinson, as human rights commissioner in 2002.
The Brazilian was previously the UN administrator for East Timor until it gained full independence from Indonesia last year.
When appointed to succeed Mrs Robinson, both the US and British ambassadors to the UN - who had reservations about the Irishwoman, welcomed his appointment.
His appointment follows Mr Annan's praise for Security Council members for reaching a consensus on a plan for Iraqi reconstruction yesterday after it passed a resolution ending 13 years of sanctions and giving the United States and Britain power to run post-war Iraq and use its abundant oil resources to finance its reconstruction.
"Whatever differences there have been in the recent past, we now have a new basis on which to work. And we must all work very hard, keeping the interests of Iraqis at the forefront of all our efforts," Mr Annan told the Council.
Despite misgivings by many of its members - particularly France, Germany and Russia - the Council voted 14-0 last night to adopt a resolution.
Syria, Iraq's neighbour and the sole Arab member of the Security Council, initially did not cast a vote and left its seat empty, only to announce seven hours later it would have voted "Yes".
The Syrian UN envoy said Damascus had not been given enough time to consider the resolution. Its belated backing for the resolution was not a change of Syria's position of rejecting the war on Iraq as an illegitimate war, he told the 15-member council.
Additional reporting AFP