CAIRO, January 18 (IslamOnline.net) - Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is likely to name former U.N. Secretary General and veteran Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali as the head of the country's first human rights council, well-placed sources told a London-based Arabic language daily on Sunday, January 18.

The 82-year-old Ghali told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat over the phone from Paris he has not been officially informed of the new post.

Egypt's maiden human rights national council was approved by the People's Assembly [the lower house of parliament] last June in an unprecedented move in the Arab country's history.

Egypt's Minister of Justice Farouq Seif Al-Nasr said the council would be affiliated to the Shura Concil [the upper house] and consist of 25 public figures, all well versed in their relevant matters.

Ghali, a former Secretary General of the Francophone organization, said he could not talk about the issue unless a formal decision was issued, asserting he would not turn down a request from the Egyptian government or Mubarak.

"I can't disclose my plans for the new council as long as I am still one of the nominees. But if it [the nomination] was officially confirmed, it would be a different story," the Paris-educated diplomat said.

He highly appreciated the Egyptian nomination "which came to crown an odyssey through high-profile Egyptian and world posts."

Ghali said he does not mind returning to Egypt to assume the post, but cited engagements with a number of international bodies, notably the Institute of the International Law and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The veteran Egyptian diplomat became the sixth secretary general of the United Nations on 1 January 1992 and served for a five-year term.

At the time of his appointment by the U.N. General Assembly on 3 December 1991, Ghali was Egypt's deputy prime minister for foreign affairs.

He had served as the country's minister of state for foreign affairs from 1977 until 1991.

Ghali, a well versed expert in law, international affairs and political science, is a member of the International Institute of Human Rights, the African Society of Political Studies and the Paris-based Academy of Ethical Science and Politics.

He further had a role in negotiating the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979.