The U.N.'s health agency grilled the short-listed candidates for its top job on Tuesday, with two Asian candidates as the front-runners.

The race is tight, with WHO bird flu expert Dr. Margaret Chan from China holding a slight lead in Monday's shortlist with 32 votes. She was closely followed by Dr. Shigeru Omi, a Japanese national who heads WHO's operations in Asia, who had 31 votes. Dr. Julio Frenk, Mexico's Health Minster, ranked third in Monday's voting, with 30 votes.

After each candidate gives a 30-minute presentation, each of the WHO's 34 executive board members can ask one question.

Omi refused to talk to reporters when he stepped out of WHO's board room following his interview.

Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado Mendez said she was "satisfied" by the members' interest in her candidacy, but did not disclose how the interview went. Salgado is the only candidate who does not hold a medical degree.

During his interview, Frenk said he talked mainly about health systems, global health security and about management reform for WHO.

The fifth candidate is Kazem Behbehani — a senior WHO official from Kuwait who, like Salgado, collected 28 votes on Monday.

Behbehani and Chan were being interviewed Tuesday afternoon.

The board completes its interviews of the five top candidates Tuesday. On Wednesday, the panel will nominate a new director-general for approval by Thursday at a special session of the agency's governing World Health Assembly, comprised of all 193 member countries.

Observers say Hong Kong native Chan, who was the WHO's top official for pandemic influenza as well as the assistant director-general for communicable diseases, has the backing of China and other Asian countries, but her chances could be limited because Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea will be the new U.N. secretary-general. A long-standing U.N. tradition holds that the top posts at different agencies are geographically divided.

Omi, a WHO insider with 16 years' experience at the organization's Asia office, faces the same handicap but could get votes from countries keen to keep China's influence in the United Nations in check.

Mexico's Frenk is the only candidate from the Americas after Ecuadorean president Alfredo Palacio Gonzalez dropped out of the running last week. The minister is credited with revamping the country's health system by introducing an insurance system for the poor.

Lee took over as director-general of WHO in 2003 after the agency successfully contained the worldwide SARS outbreak. The South Korean died of a brain hemorrhage in May, aged 61.

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