By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he had appointed veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi to head a worldwide review of U.N. security after a deadly December bomb attack in Algiers.

Brahimi, 74, was previously Algeria's foreign minister and has worked for the United Nations in countries including Haiti, Congo, Yemen, Liberia, Nigeria and Sudan. Most recently he was the U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan and later Iraq.

One of Brahimi's tasks as chairman of the review panel will be an investigation of the security conditions at the U.N. compound in Algiers prior to the Dec. 11 bomb attacks that killed at least 41 people, 17 of them U.N. staff.

A group called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the Algiers attacks.

Algeria's U.N. mission had no immediate comment on the choice of Brahimi. Algeria had made it clear that it did not welcome the new investigation because it had been conceived without consulting Algerian authorities.

Ban, asked by a reporter if the choice was aimed at winning over Algiers, said: "I have very closely consulted with the Algerian government. We have thought that Mr. Brahimi would be a very appropriate person to lead this independent panel."

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement that the safety and security panel would "make recommendations on improvements needed in the systems and practices of the U.N. ... to prevent the occurrence of such incidents."

Kemal Dervis, head of the U.N. Development Program, the U.N. agency that lost the most staff in the Algiers bombing, said last month that Algeria had failed to act on a U.N. request to block off the street in Algiers where the U.N. offices were sited.

Speaking to reporters after briefing the Security Council about his recent trip to Africa, Ban said he would remain actively involved in the drive to beef up U.N. security.

"I will also be engaging with the member states in the coming weeks and months to strengthen the security and safety support they are providing to U.N. staff posted in their countries," Ban said.

Brahimi is widely respected throughout the Arab Middle East. During his tenure as former U.N. chief Kofi Annan's first postwar Iraq envoy, he helped the country form an interim government. (Editing by Bill Trott)

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