Cambodia names a new king

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Prince Norodom Sihamoni was named Cambodia's new king yesterday, succeeding his father, Norodom Sihanouk, who stunned the country last week by announcing his abdication because of ill health.

Sihamoni, a former ballet dancer and cultural ambassador who has spent much of his life abroad, was approved by a nine-member Throne Council after about a half-hour meeting, the panel said in a statement signed by its chairman and acting head of state, Chea Sim.

The council's vote was unanimous, two palace officials said on the condition of anonymity.

The Throne Council ''has chosen Samdech Norodom Sihamoni as the king of the kingdom of Cambodia," said the statement by the panel, which includes Prime Minister Hun Sen. Samdech is an honorific.

Sihamoni, previously an ambassador to the UN cultural agency in Paris, previously showed no interest in the throne, but Sihanouk, 81, had made it clear he wanted Sihamoni to succeed him.

Sihamoni is with Sihanouk in Beijing, where the monarch has been receiving medical treatment, and is expected to return to Cambodia with him Wednesday. A coronation is planned for Oct. 29, according to Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Sihamoni's half brother and head of the National Assembly.

Hours before the Throne Council convened, Ranariddh said Sihamoni would be king ''from this afternoon," calling it ''a new page in the history of the monarchy."

Ranariddh, the king's better-known son, has repeatedly said he would rather stay in politics than be crowned king. He rushed to Beijing over the weekend to try to persuade the king to reverse his decision to abdicate, but said on his return yesterday that he had failed.

Ranariddh said he begged Sihamoni to take the throne, telling him, ''Brother, if you don't ascend the throne, it will be very difficult," because Hun Sen said he would accept no other prince to become king.

President Hu Jintao of China sent a congratulatory message to Sihamoni.

''I am pleased to learn that Your Majesty has been elected king of Cambodia," Hu said in the message, reported by the official Xinhua News Agency.

China is a key backer of Hun Sen's government, and Sihanouk enjoys close relations with leaders in Beijing.

Sihamoni, 51, is the king's only surviving son by his Eurasian wife, Queen Monineath. Cambodia's monarchy is not hereditary, and the king does not pick his successor, but Sihanouk made his preferences clear.

Key political and religious leaders had earlier endorsed the choice.

Claude Jacques, a French scholar who worked with Sihamoni at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said the prince ''does not appear like a very strong man."

''But I have seen many men who look feeble and . . . they assume [higher posts] very well.

''The last time I saw him, I thought, 'He has the aspect of a king in his manner,' " Jacques said.

When Sihanouk announced last week that he was abdicating, he said that if he were to die on the throne, it could create ''turmoil that would be mortal for the Khmer monarchy and, above all, catastrophic for Cambodia and its people, who don't deserve a new major misfortune."

Sihanouk led Cambodia to independence from France in the 1950s, but was ousted in a 1970 coup that ushered in a short-lived republic that fell to the genocidal Khmer Rouge. He returned to the throne in 1993.