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If terrorists are to be prevented from getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) must be strengthened, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency has told world leaders, politicians and economists attending this year’s World Economic Forum.

Despite a bumper harvest and a sharp reduction in needs, 2.2 million Ethiopians will still require emergency food assistance this year, while a further 5 million suffering from chronic hunger will receive cash and food transfers under a new safety net programme, according to a joint United Nation report issued today.

Two days before Iraq holds its first free elections in a generation amid continuing violence and uncertainty, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on Iraqis to turn out in large numbers, cautioned insurgents against intimidating voters and pledged the world body's continuing help in the future.

With West Africa now at the centre of a huge repatriation movement as hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by long-running civil wars return home, the head of the United Nations refugee agency begins a six-day mission to the region on Sunday for talks with all sectors, ranging from presidents to the returnees themselves.

With output in Armenia still only about 65 per cent of its level in 1990 when it gained independence from the former Soviet Union, the United Nations is granting a new $15.3 million loan to help boost the economy of rural areas, which cover about 80 per cent of the impoverished Caucasus country.

Delegates to a United Nations meeting on terrorism have agreed that global action plans to fight the scourge should encourage countries to become parties to the dozen international anti-terror treaties already on the books and underscored the world body's central role in the effort.

More than 13 years after they agreed to a ceasefire, the parties in Western Sahara remain deadlocked politically and there is no sign of any way to advance the stalled peace process, Secretary-General Kofi Annan tells the Security Council in his latest report on the work of the United Nations peacekeeping mission there.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today voiced his shock and sadness at the death of a former United Nations official who was killed in a fatal bomb attack at a political rally in Bangladesh.

Briefing Member States on the key lessons learned from the United Nations-coordinated relief response to last month's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, the world body's top relief official today stressed the need to build up logistics, communications and cooperation with the private sector before the next disaster strikes.

The Security Council today unanimously extended the mandate of the United Nations observers in Georgia for a further six months, until 31 July, and called for a settlement of the decade-old conflict between the Government and Abkhaz separatists that fully respected the territorial integrity of Georgia.