Wellington - Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 until defeated in last November's elections, has been appointed to head the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), unconfirmed news reports said on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Clark, who was known to be on a short-list of three for the job, would not confirm the appointment and said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had not made his preference public but an announcement was close.

It is the third most senior post in the world body and the UNDP has an annual budget of about 5 billion US dollars, mostly spent on programmes for under-developed countries in Africa.

Clark, 59, has been a member of the New Zealand parliament since 1981. A trailblazer in New Zealand politics, the socialist became the first woman to sit on the cabinet's front bench when she was made minister of health and housing in 1989.

She became deputy prime minister that year and toppled her predecessor Mike Moore, who went on to head the World Trade Organisation, as leader of the New Zealand Labour Party in a ruthless coup after he lost the 1993 elections.

Although she lost a general election three years later, Clark won the next ballot in 1999 and went on to become the first Labour leader to win three successive elections, leading minority governments until ousted by the conservative opposition National Party in November.

Reports said she would take up her post, succeeding former Turkish politician Kemal Dervis, in August. (dpa)