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As Eritrea celebrated today the 10th anniversary of its independence, the head of the United Nations mission in the area conveyed his congratulations to the country on the milestone and pledged UN help in solidifying peace.

More than 2,200 people have fled to Gambia in the past few days following an upsurge of fighting in the neighbouring Senegalese province of Casamance, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement issued today in Geneva.

Extremely concerned at the plight of some 70,000 Afghan refugees living in an insecure, makeshift site in Pakistan, the United Nations has begun providing them with temporary emergency assistance pending a more permanent decision on their relocation.

The United Nations today opened a three-day decolonization seminar in Havana, Cuba, aimed at reviewing conditions in small island territories that are governed by other States.

Three days of consultations between the East Timor Transitional Administration, employers, workers and members of civic society have yielded an agreement on a draft labour code, UNTAET, the UN Transitional Administration in the territory, said today in Dili.

Members of the United Nations Security Council today voiced their full support for Secretary-General Kofi Annan's efforts to resume dialogue among the parties to the Middle East conflict and expressed their backing for the just-released report on the origins of recent violence by a fact-finding mission led by former United States Senator George Mitchell.

Describing the situation in the Middle East as "potentially dangerous" pending a comprehensive settlement, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended extending for six months the United Nations operation supervising the disengagement of Syrian and Israeli forces.

Members of the United Nations Security Council today "strongly condemned" recent attacks by the Angolan rebel army UNITA, and urged the release of all civilians - both children and adults - currently being held by the armed group.

The first preparatory session of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue will take place on 16 July, the head of the Security Council mission to the Great Lakes region told journalists this morning in Lusaka, Zambia.

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) today reported that more than 1,700 combatants from the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the government-backed Civil Defence Force (CDF) had been disarmed in two districts of Sierra Leone - Kambia and Port Loko.