ADDIS ABABA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush plans to nominate Cindy Lou Courville to head the new U.S. mission to the African Union (AU), with the rank of ambassador, the U.S. embassy said here Wednesday.

    In a statement available to international media, the embassy said Courville is currently serving as special assistant to the president and senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council.

    As in all U.S. ambassadorial appointments, the U.S. Senate must confirm the nomination of Courville before she assumes her new position, the statement said.

    The U.S. mission to the AU is a new mission of the United States in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, distinct from the U.S. embassy which represents the United States to Ethiopia, it said.

    The African Union, which has an office of the permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, is also opening a new office in Washington D.C., which will be headed at the level of representative, the statement added.

    With the opening of a second embassy in the African diplomatic capital, the United States will become the first country to have two ambassadors in an African country.

    Most African countries use their bilateral mission to Ethiopia as representative to the AU. Addis Ababa will be the only African capital to host two missions from one Western country, although the practice is nothing new in other parts of the world. Thanks to the United Nations headquarters, most diplomatic missions to the United States have a mission in both New York and Washington D.C.

    For the U.S. government, Addis Ababa will become one of five capitals where it has two missions, including Brussels and Geneva, Switzerland. However, whether the chancery and residence of the ambassador responsible for the AU will be accommodated in the current compound on Entoto Street is not yet clear. Enditem