Taliban victim Malala to address UN

Malala Yousafzai took over the United Nations on Friday, nine months after a Taliban gunman put a bullet in her head believing he was ending the Pakistani teenager's campaign for girls' education.

The young woman will mark her 16th birthday with her first public speech since making a near miraculous recovery from the attack on a school bus near her home in Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Doctors had to place a titanium plate over the hole in her skull and her hearing has been badly affected. But Malala has become a global superstar and a favourite to become the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She has already been named as one of Time magazine's most influential people in 2013 and has reportedly secured a $3 million contract for a book on her life story.

Malala is expected to use her speech at UN youth assembly to lecture UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and any listening world leaders on the need to keep a promise to provide universal primary educaion by the end of 2015.

She will also hand over a petition to Ban signed by more than 330,000 people calling on the 193 UN members to finance teachers, schools and books to meet the education goal.