New Delhi, March 13: Shirin Tahir-Kheli, a Pakistani born in Hyderabad, has been appointed senior adviser to US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on United Nations?s reforms.

The first South Asian to represent the US government at such a high level, Tahir-Kheli will report directly to Rice.

With reforms on the UN agenda, including expansion of the Security Council, Tahir-Kheli?s role assumes great significance for India, which hopes to be part of an extended council.

The senior adviser will discuss the reforms with UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and his secretariat.

She will also coordinate within the state department and the inter-agency community on the US government?s position on them.

Tahir-Kheli?s name had first blipped on Delhi?s radar when there was speculation that she would be appointed assistant secretary in charge of South Asia during President George W. Bush?s first term in office.

Indian officials were worried that if she came into the picture, she could tilt the balance in favour of Pakistan in the state department.

The fears, however, were unfounded as she was not in the race.

The senior adviser has worked behind the scenes to improve relations between the neighbours and is against both India and Pakistan?s nuclear tests.

Asked about the twin tests and the effect they would have on peace in the region in an interview on October 16, 1998, she said: ?The tests have highlighted a very critical component of that policy and has added yet one more complication in a region that really requires none.?

Tahir-Kheli?s family went to Pakistan from Hyderabad when she was very young, but she still has some relatives in the Andhra Pradesh capital. She visits India and has several friends in the country. The family eventually migrated to the US and Tahir-Kheli became an American citizen in 1971.

This is not Tahir-Kheli?s first government position. The Hyderabad-born woman has served as special assistant to the President and senior director for democracy, human rights and international operations at the National Security Council from 2003-05.

In 2001, Tahir-Kheli was head of the US delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She had been the alternate US representative to the UN for special political affairs from 1990 to 1993.

Tahir-Kheli was also a research professor and founding director of the South Asia programme at the foreign policy institute of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.