Former US President Bill Clinton has been chosen as a special UN envoy to ensure the reconstruction effort for the Asian tsunami victims remains a high-profile operation, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that ?no one could possibly be better qualified for the task? of ?sustaining world interest in the vital recovery and reconstruction phase.? Clinton is currently raising money for victims of the Dec. 26 disaster that killed nearly 300,000 people and left many more homeless when a quake and deadly waves struck the shores of Indian Ocean nations.

President Bush chose Clinton and his father, former President Bush, to head a nongovernmental fund-raising effort in the United States that has included traveling around the country. Annan hopes Clinton could also use his political acumen and help resolve seemingly intractable conflicts between separatist rebels and the government in Indonesia?s Aceh province and in Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a homeland since 1983, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Both countries were severely hit by the tsumani.

Annan and Clinton intend to make a formal announcement after Clinton and the elder Bush return from a trip to the Indian Ocean later this month.The Clinton Foundation last month also launched a $ 45 million appeal with the UN Children?s Fund, UNICEF, to provide clean water and sanitation in tsunami-ravaged areas. UNICEF took a leading role in coordinating foreign aid for children shortly after the disaster.