(Adds background on Iraq mission, second Sudan appointment)

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Steffan de Mistura, who holds Swedish and Italian nationality, was appointed on Wednesday as the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, replacing Pakistani Ashraf Qazi, who was assigned to head U.N. operations in southern Sudan.

At the urging of the United States and Britain, the U.N. Security Council last month voted to assign the United Nations an expanded political role in Iraq, including promoting reconciliation between rival factions and dialogue with neighboring countries.

De Mistura, whose appointment was first disclosed last month by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, currently heads the U.N. Staff College in Turin, Italy. During three decades at various posts with the world body, he had served in Iraq as a deputy U.N. representative in 2005-2006 and spent three years in southern Lebanon.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment through his spokeswoman, Michele Montas, after the Iraqi government consented to de Mistura. Khartoum accepted the low-keyed Qazi after rejecting previous U.N. candidates to replace Jan Pronk, whom Sudan expelled nearly a year ago for his outspoken comments, diplomats and U.N. officials said.

Khalilzad has successfully pushed for the United Nations to enlarge its staff in Iraq and assume a higher profile.

De Mistura speaks some Arabic as well as Swedish, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

The United Nations has withdrawn many staff from Iraq since an explosion destroyed its office in Baghdad in August 2003 and killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello. The U.N. Staff Union wants Ban not to deploy more people in Iraq and withdraw those there now.

Qazi, whose appointment was announced on Tuesday as Ban traveled in southern Sudan, will head the U.N. Mission in Sudan, known as UNMIS. The mission includes 10,000 peacekeepers in support of an agreement that ended decades of civil war between the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and the Christian and animist south.

Ban's office also announced on Wednesday the appointment of Ameerah Haq of Bangladesh as the deputy special representative for UNMIS and the U.N. humanitarian coordinator.

UNMIS is separate from the U.N. operation in Darfur, which hopes to field up to 26,000 soldiers and police.

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