UNITED NATIONS, March 17-- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday appointed Petko Draganov of Bulgaria as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA).

Draganov succeeds Miroslav Jenca of Slovakia who was recently appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, according to an announcement released here.

Since 2009, Draganov has served as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). And before that, He was previously the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Bulgaria to the UN and the other international organizations in Geneva. He had been the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria from 2001 to 2005.

Established in 2007 in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan, UNRCCA is a special political mission with a regional mandate in conflict prevention and early warning. It assists and supports the governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in finding solutions to emerging problems and eliminating potential threats.