PARIS, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has withdrawn its candidate for a new director general of UNESCO, the chairman of the UN organization's Executive Board said on Saturday.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has failed to elect the new chief in three rounds, and will now hold the next, fourth, round on Monday.

Alexander Yakovenko, who entered the list of nine candidates for the post in early June, was among four runners who withdrew from the race after the second round. None of them had garnered 30 of 58 votes necessary, Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai said.

Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni is leading the race with 25 votes. He is followed by Bulgaria's Irina Bokova, Austria's Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, and another two candidates.

The director general is nominated by the Executive Board and appointed by the General Conference for a period of four years, and serves a maximum of two consecutive terms.

The post of UNESCO director general becomes vacant in November when Japanese Koichiro Matsuura, who has headed the organization for the past 10 years, will step down at the end of his second and last term.

The Soviet Union joined UNESCO in 1954, but Moscow has never held the top job at the organization or any other United Nations body.