Considered a strong contender to become the first woman at the UN helm, Malcorra yesterday offered reassurances that her nationality will not create tension with Britain, one of the five permanent UN Security Council members.
"The secretary-general has always said he will be ready to do whatever both sides agree he should be doing," Malcorra told reporters after appearing at hearings on her candidacy.
"That will be the case of any future secretary-general no matter what the nationality."
Malcorra is seen as a consummate UN insider, having also worked as head of field operations at UN peacekeeping and in humanitarian affairs at the World Food Programme.
British diplomats at the United Nations have said they did not consider her country's long-standing claim to the Falklands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas, to be an obstacle to her appointment.
Malcorra made clear in her statement that as UN chief she would keep a neutral stance on the sensitive dispute, for which Britain and Argentina went to war in 1982.
"What frustrated me the most? I think that when I knew that something could be done and for some reason got stuck, then that frustrated me," Malcorra said.
"Probably, that is the reason why I am sitting before you here," she added.
"I have the conviction that this organisation can go beyond what it has done so far."
The next secretary-general is under pressure from key powers at the United Nations to show that he or she can take the clunky, often sclerotic world body and turn it into a more effective organisation.
The council is due to begin straw polls to select a nominee in July, but the process is not expected to conclude before October, when the General Assembly will be asked to endorse the council's choice.
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