Libya, under fire for years from human rights activists, was overwhelmingly elected Monday to chair the top United Nations rights body after the United States broke with tradition and forced a vote. The North African country ruled by President Muammar Gaddafi  will preside at the March 17-April 25 session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission which meets annually to survey the rights situation around the world.

For the first time since the Commission was founded in 1947, the decision went to a vote after Washington said it could not "reward Libya's terrible conduct" and demanded a ballot.

Libya, which is still not fully free of U.N. sanctions imposed for its alleged role in the Lockerbie airliner bombing , had been nominated by African countries whose turn it was by U.N. tradition to make the choice.

The Libyan candidate, diplomat and former journalist Mrs. Najat al-Hajjaji, won 33 votes in a secret ballot of the 53-country Commission, with 17 states abstaining and three voting no -- apparently including the United States.

No country-by-country breakdown was immediately available, but the abstentions were believed to include European countries and some from Latin America.

The U.S. decision to force a vote was denounced as "a political challenge" by South Africa, which proposed al-Hajjaji on behalf of all African countries on the commission.

VIOLATED

South Africa's envoy Sipho George Nene said the United States move had violated a practice which had helped maintain cooperation on the commission and expressed the hope it would be the last time a proposed chairman was challenged.

"The right of regional groups to present candidates of their choice must be respected," he declared.

Nene later declined to challenge on behalf of the Commission's African group the nomination by Canada for the Western group of Australian envoy Mike Smith as one of the three vice-chairs to al-Hajjaj.

Her other two deputies -- also elected unopposed -- were envoys from Sri Lanka and Peru, representing the Asian and Latin American groups.

In a speech after her election, the Libyan diplomat -- who had been a vice-chair herself in 2001 -- said she and her colleagues "will do everything in her power to carry out the tasks entrusted to us." She said she as chariwoman she would avoid taking decisions on a personal basis "as far as possible" and would rely on the Commission's "collective wisdom."

She would be guided, she said, by the words of an early Islamic leader who told his followers that he had been chosen as their guide "but I am not the best among you....if I make mistakes, please help me to correct them."

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Libya, had been nominated by African countries whose turn it was by U.N. tradition to make the choice. The Libyan candidate, diplomat and former journalist Mrs. Najat al-Hajjaji, won 33 votes in a secret ballot of the 53-country Commission, with 17 states abstaining and three voting no -- apparently including the United States.