ROME: Chinese vice minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Qu Dongyu has been elected as new head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

He is the first Chinese official to be chosen as the head of the FAO, in the over 70-year-long history of the UN food agency.

His election took place during the ongoing 41 session of the FAO Conference, which has gathered representatives from all of the agency's 194 member states at the headquarters in the Italian capital.

Qu received 108 votes out of 191 totally cast, obtaining the majority in one single round of voting. He won over other two candidates, namely French agronomist Catherine Geslain-Laneelle, a former executive director of the European Food Safety Authority, and Georgia's ex-minister of Agriculture Davit Kirvalidze. Xinhua