OSLO, Sep 02, 1997 U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was a ``strong candidate'' for the job of director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He stopped short of backing her candidacy.

``I know Mrs Brundtland personally. I think extremely highly of her. I think she is a very able leader,'' Annan said in response to a question at a news conference after flying into Oslo for a two-day visit.

``And, for the cause of the WHO, she comes with unique qualifications -- a medical doctor, a political leader and someone with incredible energy and strength. So, she is a strong candidate.''

Annan, on a trip to Nordic countries, will meet Brundtland on Wednesday as part of his programme.

``But of course, as the secretary-general of the organisation, I cannot say that I am supporting this or that candidate,'' Annan, flanked by Norwegian prime minister Thorbjoern Jagland, said.

Brundtland, 58, quit unexpectedly as prime minister last October, relinquishing power to Jagland, whom she had groomed for the job for years partly in preparation for her own, international career.

On August 27, Norway formally launched Brundtland's candidacy to replace WHO director general Hiroshi Nakajima of Japan, a frequent target of Western criticism. He steps down in July 1998 at the end of his second five-year mandate.

Brundtland, who has been prime minister for more than 10 years spanning three periods starting in 1981, told Reuters last week that the WHO should strive for greater coordination in international health efforts.

She said the agency must enhance its moral and political clout in order for nations to make it worthwhile to boost its financial basis.

The WHO executive committee will make its recommendation on a successor to Nakajima in January and the final decision will be taken at a WHO Assembly in May 1998.

Brundtland's rivals for the WHO position include Nafis Sadik, Pakistani head of the U.N. population fund. Like Brundtland, she is a medical doctor.

Other candidates announced so far are Fernando Antezana Aranibar of Bolivia, a Nakajima deputy, and the chief of the Pan American Health Organisation, Sir George Alleyne, a former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the West Indies.