MUMBAI: Jeremy Bowen has been appointed to the newly-created post of BBC Middle East Editor. He will take up his appointment after he leaves his current assignment in Rome.     

The new role is designed to enhance BBC's audience's understanding of the Middle East; and to provide extra commentary, focus and analysis to an increasingly complex area of the world. The editor will serve all of the BBC's news outlets, including radio, television, BBC News Online, and BBC World.

In order to provide a broader perspective on wider Middle East issues, Bowen will be based in the World Affairs Unit in London, but will travel extensively throughout the region. Bowen brings to his new post considerable experience of the region, having spent five years in Jerusalem as the BBC's Middle East correspondent from 1995 to 2000.

Last year he was part of the BBC team that won the Sony Gold award for News Story of the Year, on Saddam Hussein's capture. He has also made two documentaries on Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. In 1996 he won an RTS award for his coverage of the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Rabin.

Most recently he presented BBC One's Jeremy Bowen on the Front Line, which explored the lives and motivations of war journalists. This came from his rich experience as a seasoned war correspondent, reporting from more than 70 countries, and covering conflicts in the Gulf, El Salvador, Lebanon, the West Bank, Afghanistan, Croatia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia and Rwanda, Iraq, Algeria and Kosovo.