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Deciding that Liberia has not fully complied with United Nations demands to halt its support for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and other armed groups in the region, the Security Council today extended sanctions on Liberia for a further 12 months.

A meeting to mark the independence of East Timor - a United Nations success story - will be among the highlights in the work of the Security Council in the month of May, the current President of the 15-member body said today.

The high-level of participation of children in an upcoming United Nations forum devoted to youth issues will be a "tremendous breakthrough" marking a new chapter in the history of the UN, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a gathering of children today in New York.

Responding to the current humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today appealed to donors for $3.6 million to fund an eight-month assistance plan aimed at providing reproductive health services to vulnerable Palestinian women and girls.

After meeting in closed-door consultations to review the sanctions imposed on Liberia for its support for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone and other armed groups in the region, the United Nations Security Council today said it had also discussed a draft resolution that it intended to vote on next Monday.

The United has released a letter from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Security Council, in which he outlines the reasons underlying his intention to disband a UN fact-finding team to Jenin, whose deployment faced "fundamental" objections from Israel, despite every effort taken by the UN to accommodate those concerns.

With the announced cancellation of a United Nations fact-finding mission to Jenin dominating the discussion, the Security Council today held an extended open debate of the situation in the Middle East, including the question of Palestine.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top envoy for the Middle East peace process said today they were pleased by the results of Thursday's meeting in Washington D.C. of the diplomatic "Quartet" comprised of the UN, the United States, the Russian Federation and the European Union.

With just over two weeks to go before East Timor’s independence, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today said it was concentrating its efforts on helping as many of the 55,000 remaining refugees return home.

Following three days of talks between senior United Nations and Iraqi officials on returning UN weapons inspectors to the country, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reported that the discussions had been "useful and frank" and predicted that a new round could be held within a month.