Members of the International Telecommunication Union have elected Hamadoun Touré of Mali as the organisation's new secretary-general by a majority 95 of 155 votes.

He beat Mathias Kurth of Germany into second place after three rounds of voting at the organisation's 17th annual Plenipotentiary Conference in Turkey.

Touré said his two main goals as secretary-general were to eliminate the digital divide and make cyberspace more secure. After the vote he pledged to work with "transparency, objectivity and vigour" during his tenure.

He has already served two terms of office for the ITU. In 1998 he was elected to the head of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, a position he held for two full terms. Prior to this he was director-general, Africa, of ICO Global Communications.

A new deputy secretary-general was also elected. Houlin Zhao of China won the position in the first round taking 98 of the 155 votes. Carlos Sánchez of Spain took 34 votes, and T Ayhan Beydoğan of Turkey took 28. ®