India handed over a letter to the president of the Security Council, formally withdrawing Tharoor's candidature, officials said.

Tharoor, the UN Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, had on Tuesday announced his withdrawal from the race for the post of secretary general after South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon emerged the winner of the fourth straw poll among Security Council members.

He had then said the 62-year-old Ban was a clear winner and would be the next secretary general, succeeding Kofi Annan.