UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- Ghana and 17 other countries won seats, on Friday, on the 54-seat U.N. Economic and Social Council, the main U.N. body concerned with international economic, cultural, educational and health matters.

The 18 were elected to three-year terms beginning on January 1 by a vote of the 189-nation U.N. General Assembly. One-third of the council's seats fall vacant at the end of each year.

African nations winning seats on the council, known for short as ECOSOC, were Burundi, Ghana, Libya and Zimbabwe, and Asian winners were Bhutan, China, India and Qatar.

Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala were elected from Latin American and the Caribbean region.

Eastern European countries elected were Hungary, Russia and Ukraine. Australia, Britain, Finland and Sweden were elected from among Western European and other states.

In one other membership shift that did not involve an election, Portugal swapped its seat with Spain.

Defeated for seats were Myanmar, North Korea and Haiti.

ECOSOC, which rarely makes world headlines, found itself in the spotlight in May when, in a stunning upset, it voted the United States off the top U.N. human rights body, the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission.

The United States has a seat on ECOSOC but was not up for re-election this year.