GENEVA (Reuters) - Libya, under fire for years from human rights activists, was overwhelmingly elected Monday to chair the top United Nations' rights body after the United States broke with tradition and forced a vote.

The North African country ruled by Muammar Gaddafi will preside at the March 17-April 25 session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission which meets annually to survey the rights situation around the world.

The Libyan candidate, diplomat and former journalist Najat al-Hajjaji, won 33 votes in a secret ballot of the 53-country Commission, with 17 states abstaining and three voting no -- apparently including the United States.

"This is not a defeat for the United States, this is a defeat for the Human Rights Commission," said U.S. Ambassador Kevin E. Moley.

For the first time since the Commission was founded in 1947, the decision went to a vote after Washington said it could "leave no doubt about our objection" and demanded a ballot.

Libya, which is still not fully free of U.N. sanctions imposed for its alleged role in the Lockerbie airliner bombing, had been nominated by African countries whose turn it was by U.N. tradition to make the choice.

"The United States is deeply disappointed...Libya's government continues to commit serious human rights violations ... A country with this record does not merit a leadership role in the U.N. system," Moley told journalists.

No breakdown was available of the vote on the Commission, whose members include several states whose rights records have been questioned, among them Cuba, Sudan and Algeria.

The abstentions were believed to include European countries and some from Latin America. Canada was the only country to announce beforehand that it would line up with Washington.

VIOLATED

The Libyan ambassador dismissed the U.S. move as "politically motivated," but she said that it would not prevent her from cooperating with all Commission members in carrying out her duties.

She would be guided, she said, by the words of an early Islamic leader who told his followers: "I am not the best among you ... if I make mistakes, please help me to correct them."

Earlier al-Hajjaji intervened to urge the African Group, which had planned to vote against Australia's candidacy for one of the three Commission vice-chairs, to forget retaliation for the U.S. decision and drop its opposition.

The United States is a member of the Western Group which includes North America, western Europe and Australasia.

"We have had enough votes for today," said al-Hajjaji, who held the position of vice-chair two years ago when Libya's candidacy for that post went through unopposed.

Her other two deputies -- also elected unopposed -- were envoys from Sri Lanka and Peru, representing the Asian and Latin American groups.

REPORTS OF TORTURE

Various U.N. rights committees have expressed concern at reports of torture, prolonged detention and extrajudicial killings in Libya where the unpredictable Gaddafi has governed since taking power in a 1969 coup.

U.N sanctions were suspended -- but not officially lifted -- in 1999 after Libya handed over two agents for trial over the 1988 airliner bombing in which 270 people died. One agent was subsequently convicted and jailed.

Human rights activists and officials are worried the controversy generated by the choice of chair could further damage the standing of the Commission which has shown increasing reluctance to speak out strongly against rights abuses.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, who cut short a trip to Africa because of the tensions surrounding the vote, has backed activists' calls for conditions to be agreed for Commission membership.

These could include signing and ratifying all human rights treaties and inviting U.N. special rights investigators to visit.