GENEVA (AP):

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is convening this week to pick its next leader, and some leading public health officials are worried the new chief may not have the strength to stand up to Washington on drug and sexual health policy.

Critics say WHO has been largely controlled behind the scenes by the United States - its biggest donor, and one which many contend is intent on promoting the interests of its pharmaceuticals industry and the Bush administration's ideological line on issues like abortion.

Leading public health experts and senior WHO officials told The Associated Press that Washington consistently interfered with policy under the United Nations agency's last director-general, Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, who died in May.

"The U.S. government has a direct role in every significant decision made in Geneva, and even close to a veto role," said Dr. Richard Horton, editor of the influential medical journal, The Lancet. Horton also sits on an independent advisory panel for WHO.

In one prominent case, the United States recently requested the suppression of a book commissioned by WHO that criticised U.S. free trade agreements for jeopardising poor countries' access to cheap medicines.

Fearing the us

In a letter to WHO's acting director-general, a senior official from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the report 'spuriously' characterised of U.S. trade policy. WHO has yet to make a decision on the U.S. demand.

"Standing up to the U.S. is not the easiest thing to do at the WHO," said Sisule Musungu, a Kenyan intellectual property specialist, who co-authored the report with a former WHO staffer.

The episode has sparked concern from two U.S. Democrats, Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Henry Waxman, who have called for an investigation into how American trade agreements threaten the health of people in developing countries.

"Attempting to suppress a report because it is critical of U.S. trade policy is unacceptable," Kennedy wrote in a letter to Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services. "We need more - not less - analysis of the factors affecting global public health."

The five shortlisted contenders were former Hong Kong director of health and WHO insider Dr. Margaret Chan from China; Dr. Shigeru Omi, a Japanese who heads WHO's operations in the Western Pacific; Mexican Health Minister Dr. Julio Frenk; longtime WHO Kuwaiti official, Dr. Kazem Behbehani; and Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado Mendez.