Tough operator who was no stranger to danger

SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO, the top UN envoy on Iraq who was killed in a bomb blast yesterday, was a tough but debonair Brazilian who had been dispatched on some of the world body's most difficult missions.

Mr Vieira de Mello, 55, replaced former President Mary Robinson as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last September. He was the immediate choice of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to take on the Iraqi job in May after the controversial US-British invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. He was also the US choice and had been summoned to Washington in March, weeks before the start of the US-led invasion, to be sounded out by President George W Bush.

After arriving in Baghdad, he had quickly established his presence and won the respect of US Iraq administrator Paul Bremer despite tension between Washington and the UN Secretariat over the Iraq war.