The Secretary-General appointed Ambassador Terje Roed-Larsen of Norway as United Nations Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and his Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. He will hold the rank of Under-Secretary-General. Ambassador Roed- Larsen succeeded Chinmaya R. Gharekhan who completed his duties on 30 September 1999.

Ambassador Roed-Larsen, who was born on 22 November 1947, began his career as an academic, studying history, philosophy and sociology. He taught Sociology and Philosophy at the Universities of Bergen and Oslo, before establishing the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science in Oslo in 1981.

As Director of Fafo, he initiated a research project into the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The relationships with both Palestinians and Israelis that he established during the period of preparing and implementing this project led to a request by the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1992, that he help establish a secret channel for negotiations between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Government of Israel. Those negotiations concluded with the signing of the Declaration of Principles at the White House on 13 September 1993.

In 1993, Mr. Roed-Larsen was appointed Ambassador and Special Advisor to the Norwegian Foreign Minister for the Middle East peace process. In mid-1994, he was appointed United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Special Co-ordinator in the Occupied Territories, based in Gaza. He returned to Norway at the end of 1996, and served as Minister of Planning.

In January 1998, Mr. Roed-Larsen was appointed Ambassador, Special Adviser by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with responsibility for the Middle East peace process. He also serves as Honorary Chair of the Programme for International Co-operation and Conflict Resolution at the Oslo-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science.

He was born on 22 November 1947.