Amid an emergency meeting about North Korea's reported nuclear test Monday, the UN Security Council announced it had nominated South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as successor to Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The 192-member General Assembly is expected to endorse the choice in a vote likely to take place later this week.

"The Security Council has just recommended to the General Assembly that Mr. Ban Ki-moon be appointed secretary-general of the United Nations," Japan's UN Ambassador Kenzo Oshima told reporters Monday after the 15-member council voted at a private meeting.

Annan is due to step down on Dec. 31 after serving two five-year terms as UN chief.

In Seoul, Ban expressed gratitude for being nominated and said he would work to resolve the crisis over North Korea's nuclear program after the communist state claimed it had conducted an atomic test.

If appointed to the top job at the global body, Ban, 62, said he would "contribute as much as I can to the resolution of all kinds of problems including the North Korean nuclear issue that may threaten international peace and security."

Ban, who will become the eighth UN chief if chosen, has promised to make the UN more effective, efficient and relevant.

He is set to take on an organization at the centre of several global issues, including Iran, Lebanon and Sudan.

Ban, who is a self-described "harmonizer, balancer, mediator," has been lauded for his skills as a consummate negotiator who prefers back-room business over the high-profile performance.

During his campaign to become secretary-general, Ban ran a skillful campaign in which he promised to reform the "culture of the organization, increase accountability and toughen ethics."

Though there has been little detail on what he plans to do, observers have noted this may have been a deliberate strategy not to step on the toes of outgoing secretary-general Annan, who has called the post "the world's most impossible job."