UNITED NATIONS By a nice piece of timing, Kofi Annan is according to AFP set to be appointed to a second five-year term as UN Secretary General on Friday, in the week that member states join forces behind his personal crusade -- the fight against AIDS.

On Monday morning, Annan, a former head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, will make the keynote speech setting the tone for a three-day special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the AIDS pandemic.

The session, the first devoted to a public health issue in the 55-year history of the UN, illustrates how the priorities of the world body have evolved during Annan's first term in office.

The Security Council has scheduled a meeting to take up the question of his reappointment on Wednesday.

Anwarul Chowdhury, the ambassador of Bangladesh to the UN, and this month's Council president, as good as told reporters last week that the vote among the 15 members to recommend Annan for a second term would be unanimous.

All five permanent members have already declared their support for Annan, and the General Assembly is expected to endorse the Council's recommendation by acclamation on Friday.

There is a poignancy in the fact that Chowdhury will preside over the proceedings, for it is widely believed at the diplomatic rumor mill that he had his sights on the position, had the Asian group of nations insisted that it be filled by an Asian candidate in 2002.

After the death of Dag Hammarskjold in 1961, the job rotated among geographic blocs, each of the next three incumbents serving two five-year terms.

But Annan, a Ghanaian, took office on January 1, 1997, after the United States blackballed the reappointment of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a former Egyptian deputy foreign minister.

Egypt and Ghana are both members of the African bloc, and at least one Asian ambassador wondered aloud whether Annan might be denied a second term.

In a possible bid to pre-empt such speculation, 53 African ambassadors held a news conference in March at which they appealed to Annan to seek reappointment.

According to UN officials, there is no precedent among Annan's six predecessors for renewing the mandate of the organization's top official six months before it expires.

There is little doubt that almost all diplomats and UN staff would second the African ambassadors' praise for Annan's "grace, dignity and concern for others."

One permanent member of the Security Council told a group of reporters: "Kofi's main criterion is whether he can serve the United Nations; he believes passionately in the UN."

At the same time, Annan has shown skill in steering a course between the conflicting pressures from powerful member states, notably over problems arising in the Middle East.

He has distanced himself from U.S. policy over Iraq, and has advocated "smarter sanctions" in general.

While the UN General Assembly has traditionally shown an anti-Israeli bias, Annan clearly has the respect of both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership.

He was one of five leaders who took part in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in October, the first serious attempt to end the violence in the Palestinian territories.

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, on April 8, 1938, Annan entered the UN system as an official of the World Health Organization in Geneva in 1962.

During his first term of office as secretary general, he presided over two unprecedented attempts at nation-building, the UN transitional administrations in East Timor and Kosovo.

Annan is married to Nane Annan, a Swedish lawyer and artist. They have three children.