The shareholders of Mittal Steel, have cleared a proposal to designate Usha Mittal to run the company in the absence of the directors.

In a regulatory filing, Mittal steel said, "The resolution was approved by 97 per cent of votes cast by shareholders." The statement said that Usha Mittal has over 15 years experience in steel and related industries and was a director of the company from its inception until 16 March, 2001.

At the AGM, the shareholders also approved a proposal to ratify the board''s decision to appoint Lakshmi Mittal as the chief executive officer of the company as of 5 November 2006. Mittal is already the president of the board of Mittal Steel and Joseph Kinsch is the chairman.

Mittal''s daughter Vanisha Mittal is also one of the directors on the board.

This was the first AGM attended by both former shareholders of Arcelor and shareholders of Mittal Steel.

According to the company''s annual report for 2006, Lakshmi and Usha Mittal own 87.47 per cent of Mittal Steel''s shares, representing 98.32 per cent of its voting rights. The AGM was represented by 904,793,958 shares, or 65 per cent of the company''s entire share capital and the shareholders adopted all the resolutions on the agenda, the company said.

The Mittal family abstained during the vote on this resolution, which was approved by 98.2 per cent of the votes cast by other shareholders.

The company had said in November 2006 when Mittal was appointed as CEO that controlling shareholders would abstain from voting on his appointment.

Mittal Steel, which acquired the world''s second largest steel maker Arcelor SA last year for over $33 billion dollars, will soon be renamed as Arcelor Mittal.

Addressing the shareholders at the meeting, Mittal Steel chairman and CEO said, "Since last year''s merger, integration of our two companies has gone forward at a fast pace and operational results have surpassed our expectations."

Arcelor Mittal is the world''s number one steel company with 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries. It had a combined revenue of $88.6 billion dollars in 2006, with a crude steel production of 118 million tonnes, representing around 10 per cent of the world''s steel output.