Ehsan Mani is seen as a safe pair of hands

Mani, a London-based chartered accountant will be elected to take over from Australian Malcolm Gray during the ICC's week-long annual meeting, which begins at Lord's on Sunday.

He is firmly behind expansion plans, especially moves to raise the game's profile in North America.

"You can't truly have an international game based on 10 teams, you have to be expansionist and open up new markets," he has been quoted as saying.

Mani has been Pakistan's representative to the ICC since 1989 and has served as vice-president for the past year.

We nominated Ehsan Mani for the post because he was best qualified to do this job - he is a very competent person Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Tauqir Zia Related story: ICC to talk money

He played a leading role in the sale of media rights three years ago, which guaranteed an income of $500m for international cricket (�328m) over a period up to and including the 2007 World Cup.

It is due to be staged in the West Indies, but serious consideration is now beein given to playing some matches in the USA in line with the expansion proposal.

Mani will also be hoping to play a part in facilitating the resumption of normal cricketing relations between Pakistan and India.

Matches between the arch-rivals have been infrequent in recent years because of a stand-off between the two governments over disputed territory in Kashmir.

Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf has said that cricket is a "trivial issue" compared to the political problems which need to be resolved.

The ICC's organisation of the World Cup came in for criticism

And Mani acknowledged last year: "We can only facilitate dialogue and persuade governments that it is not healthy for sports and politics to mix - but we are not in a position to dictate."

He will be the third president since the ICC was formed in 1997.

Gray's period in charge has been marked by controversy, including the match-fixing crisis which was sparked by South African Hansie Cronje's admissions in 2000.

Earlier this year, the ICC came in for criticism over their failure to deal with potential problems concerning Zimbabwe's co-hosting of World Cup games early enough, resulting in England refusing to fulfil their fixture in Harare, and the tournament format.