UNITED NATIONS, New York The Islamic Republic of Iran assumed on Friday the presidency of Group 77 developing nations as of Friday.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, the UN Development Program (UNDP) senior official and diplomats from the G77 member states will take part in a ceremony at the UN headquarters in New York in which Nigerian Foreign Minister Alhaji Sule Lamido will hand over the presidency of Group 77 to the Iranian foreign minister for the year 2001.

Iran's permanent Ambassador to the United Nations Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian told IRNA that this is the first time since the victory of the Islamic Revolution that Iran is assuming the G77 presidency. G77 is 37 years old and Iran had become the group's president only once in 1973.

The Group of 77 was established in 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries.

The first ministerial meeting of the G77 was held in Algiers in 1967 which adopted the charter of Algiers.

The ministerial meeting is the supreme decision-making body of the Group of 77 convened annually at the beginning of the regular sessions of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The alliance which has currently 133 members, held a summit in Havana on April 10-14, 2000.

Nejad-Hosseinian said that Iran would do its best to promote the largest alliance of the developing nations during the one-year term presidency.

(IRNA)