Reacting to India's nomination of diplomat and writer Shashi Tharoor for the post of United Nations Secretary General, the United States has said that it will be 'looking very carefully' at the nominees.

"Obviously the Secretary General of the United Nations is an extremely important position for the welfare of the whole world and the United States will be looking very carefully at all the nominees," a senior Bush administration official said on Thursday.

The United States has also said very little about the other candidates nominated by Sri Lanka [Images], Thailand and South Korea.

Observers said that the formal endorsement by India had to be seen in the backdrop of a lot of behind-the-scenes activities already taking place for the last several months involving the candidatures of Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka and Ban ki Moon of South Korea.

The Bush administration is not expected to make a formal announcement on its support or backing -- that would include the strong candidacy of Thailand from the ASEAN group of Nations -- until the very end of the process, which is not expected to pick up for some more months.