Wellington  - Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, 59, the new chief of the United Nations Development Programme is a no-nonsense, political junkie with a lifelong commitment to helping the poor and underprivileged.

Once labelled a radical feminist, she overcame what she dubbed "incredibly sexist" male attitudes in the New Zealand Parliament, where she has served for more than 27 years, to win promotion by "the skills and devotion of a workaholic," as she put it.

A political trailblazer, the farmer's daughter was the first woman to sit on the cabinet's front bench, as minister of health and housing in 1989 and became leader of the New Zealand Labour Party in 1993.

She went on to become the only Labour leader to win three consecutive elections and led the country as prime minister from 1999 until defeated by the conservative opposition National Party in November.

After each election, she had to negotiate tricky deals with minor parties to cobble together coalition governments, demonstrating political acumen and patience unmatched since New Zealand adopted a proportional representation voting system designed to put minority parties into parliament in 1996.

"Girls can do anything. We do do anything and we expect to be treated as equals," she said.

But although she reluctantly accepted the hair-dos and air-brushed publicity photos advisers urged on her every election campaign, she has little time for feminine fripperies.

Always happier in a backroom debating policy than putting on make- up and classy dresses, she shrugged off criticisms of her appearance, including once for wearing trousers when hosting a formal banquet for Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

"It doesn't particularly interest me," she said. "Being respected for being able to do the job does interest me."

A dedicated politician, she first stood for parliament at the age of 25 when a junior lecturer in political studies at Auckland University.

She has admitted she married only because it appeared necessary to get elected in 1981 and she and her husband, health academic Peter Davis, are childless by choice - a decision that provoked taunts in and out of parliament from conservatives who saw that as abnormal behaviour.

Rejecting a commentator's claim that New Zealanders like their leaders to be ordinary like them, she once said: "For God's sake, I am not prepared to make myself ordinary.

"If ordinary means I have suddenly got to produce a household of kids and iron Peter's shirts, I'm sorry, I'm not interested."

As prime minister, Clark showed an impressive grasp of detail in every area of government, and had a steely-eyed authoritarian manner that led political opponents to dub her "bossy boots" and the country she governed "Helengrad" and a "Nanny state."

"I don't accept that stereotype," she said. "I do see my style as being one of strong leadership."

Once seen as being anti-American, she mended fences with Washington despite her continued commitment to New Zealand's 24-year- old anti-nuclear policy and refusal to join the invasion of Iraq.

Although she led a small country of only 4.3 million people, she earned wide respect for her diplomacy and knowledge of international affairs as the longest-serving leader of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation grouping, which includes the US, Russia, China and Japan, among others.

Renowned for 18-hour working days, she relaxes listening to opera and likes to take vacations cross-country skiing and climbing mountains around the world. (dpa)