Former UN spokesman now teaching in China
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-23 09:01

The former spokesman of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has found himself in China's eastern province of Zhejiang teaching undergraduates about international diplomacy.

Fred Eckhard, who retired from his UN post in June, got the teaching job after commenting to a Chinese journalist during a retirement party in New York about his wish to teach at Zhejiang University, Xinhua news agency reported.

After his dream was reported in local papers, the university immediately contacted Eckhard and offered him a contract, the report said.

Eckhard will teach one course entitled "How to Be A Spokesperson" and one optional course called "United Nations After the Cold War," university sources said.

Being addressed as "professor," however, has made Eckhard a bit uneasy, the report said.

"As a matter of fact, I am not a real professor, I'm just a spokesman, or more exactly I used to be a spokesman," he said.