Shevrdnadze was given flat refusal

On Monday UN Secretary-General's spokesman Fred Eckhard refuted the press report saying that a post of adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was allegedly offered to ex-president of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze.

According to Mr. Eckhard, the rumors could be caused by Shevardnadze's meeting with UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kul Gautam at which the sides possibly discussed potential work of Georgia's ex-president (he voluntarily-compulsorily resigned during the "revolution of roses" in Georgia) in this specialized UN agency.

The UN Secretary-General's spokesman added that, to settle the misunderstanding, coordinator of the UN Development Program in Tbilisi Lance Clark visited Shevardnadze on Monday, thanked him for his readiness to cooperate with UNICEF, and specified that the Secretary-General had nothing to do with this proposal.

"In all probability, Kofi Annan has heard nothing of Shevardnadze's meeting with the UNICEF Deputy Executive Director," Mr. Eckhard noted.

Earlier Eduard Shevardnadze, speaking of his readiness to cooperate with the UN, cited precisely this proposal allegedly conveyed to him on behalf of the UN Secretary-General. Meanwhile, his ideological opponents in Georgia, in particular the widow of first president of post-Soviet Georgia Eviad Gamsakhurdia (Mr. Shevardnadze is accused of implication in his death) and her supporters have demanded prosecution of Eduard Shevardnadze.