An efficient SQP algorithm for solving nonlinear degenerate problems is proposed in the paper. At each iteration of the algorithm, a quadratic programming subproblem, which is always feasible by introducing a slack variable, is solved to obtain a search direction. The steplength along this direction is computed by employing the 1∞ exact penalty function through Armijo-type line search scheme. The algorithm is proved to be convergent globally under mild conditions.
