Australia's former foreign minister Alexander Downer will quit politics and take up the role of United Nations special envoy for Cyprus, a report said Tuesday.
  
Downer, 56, who served as foreign minister for a record of nearly 12 years until his Liberal Party was ousted in elections last November, revealed the move in an interview with The Australian newspaper.
  
He said that in addition to his role with the UN on the divided Mediterranean island he would join a business consultancy in his home town of Adelaide.
  
The UN job of uniting Turkish and Greek Cypriots is "not going to be a cakewalk," Downer said, while pointing to his past experience in the world's hotspots.
  
"These things are always untidy. It's never easy to do. We ended the civil war in Bougainville (in Papua New Guinea). We played our part in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why not try to fix up Cyprus as well," he was quoted as saying.
  
Downer's resignation from parliament will lead to a by-election in his Adelaide seat of Mayo, which he has held for nearly 25 years.
  
He is due to formally announce his retirement on Wednesday after returning from a trip to Britain and the United States, the newspaper said.
  
Downer became Minister for Foreign Affairs in March 1996 following the election of John Howard as prime minister and held the post until Howard lost power to Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in November.