ROME – The Fao Director General, José Graziano da Silva, may be among the hundreds of candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize to be awarded next month, Rome-based diplomatic sources said Monday.

 Graziano,a Brazilian agronomist serving his second term as head of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, would be keen to become the first Brazilian to receive the award, the sources said.

 His recently appointed chef de cabinet, suave Mario Lubetkin, was charged with arranging discreet lobbying for Graziano’s candidature, one source claimed.

 Meanwhile the DG in another high-level shake-up moved Italian hungercrat Fernanda Guerrieri from her position as the head of the forestry division after just three months to make her assistant director general for corporate services.

 Previously Guerrieri had been the popular chef du cabinet but was transferred to forestery to maike space for Lubetkin, formerly had of media, who holds both Italian and Uruguayan nationalities.

 In another development assistant director general Richard Trenchard lost a rearguard action he was fighting to stay in Rome and took up an appointment in charge of FAO operations in Somalia, based in Nairobi, FAO sources said.