The first female minister to become Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland yesterday said she hoped her appointment would be an inspiration to women in churches worldwide.

The Rev Sheilagh Kesting said she wanted it to give strength to women in countries where they are banned from being ministers.

Miss Kesting, 53, becomes the second female moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland after Dr Alison Elliot, an elder who took up the post three years ago.

The minister, from Storno-way, will succeed incumbent, the Rev Alan McDonald, this weekend.

Speaking at a news con- ference in Edinburgh, Miss Kesting said: "I think it will be tremendously inspirational for women in many churches around the world, who are longing to be able to be ministers in the church, but it is not yet possible."

But the moderator designate insisted her appointment was about more than the fact she was a woman. She said: "The ceiling was broken by Alison Elliot, an elder in the church, when she became moderator in 2004.

"My understanding is that my gender came low in the list of attributes people identified in me when they asked me to be the moderator, and I am happy this should be so."

Outlining her priorities for the year ahead, the current secretary of the Kirk's committee on ecumenical relations said she hoped to work to battle sectarianism and to help give a voice to the country's smaller churches.

She said: "I think Alan and some of my other predecessors have done a wonderful job in addressing Scotland's sectarian shame and I certainly would want to continue with that high-profile work."

She also said she wanted to visit Syria and Lebanon in the course of her 12 months as moderator.

She said: "It is a place where the Christian community can feel very isolated and somewhat beleaguered by the conflicts that continue to scar that whole region. The visit would be a significant statement of our solidarity with them."

Miss Kesting, a keen gardener and singer, was educated at the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway and Edinburgh University.

She was inducted to Overtown Parish Church, Lanarkshire, in 1980 and in 1986 she was inducted to the newly united congregation of St Andrew's High, Musselburgh, East Lothian.