With Latin America producing enough food to feed more than three times its total population, the continent must redouble its efforts to eliminate the inequalities leading to the vast strata of malnutrition and poverty that are sapping its economic development, United Nations officials have told a regional conference.

The security situation in Haiti has deteriorated over the past three months with a surge of violence, underlining the need to remove all illegal weapons from the streets, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report on the impoverished Caribbean country.

Health, education, the economy and the environment in Haiti are all headed downhill over the next decade, according to a new joint report by the United Nations and the Government, providing an urgent wake-up call for the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and for nations across the world interested in its future.

Against a backdrop of growing national security concerns, the fight against terrorism and increasing migration controls in the Americas, Latin American countries have approved a plan of action to improve refugee protection in what the head of the United Nations refugee agency has called a triumph for human rights.