The European Union has appointed a member of the European Parliament, Glenys Kinnock, to be its special envoy to observe the parliamentary elections in Cambodia, scheduled to take place next month.

Mrs Kinnock -- the wife of the European Commissioner and former leader of the British Labour Party, Neil Kinnock -- says she intended to travel extensively throughout Cambodia to check the polls are free and fair.

She will be in charge of a team of more than eighty election observers from the European Union.