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Convinced that peace in Liberia is the key to stability in all of West Africa, the top United Nations envoy for the country said today he will ask the Security Council to authorize 15,000 troops to restore order and make last month's ceasefire agreement between government and opposition forces work.

Some 2,500 United Nations peacekeeping troops are now firmly in place in Bunia, in the war-ravaged northeast province of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the UN Mission in the country.

In an effort to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the number one cause of death among adults in Africa, the United Nations will next week hold a workshop to provide government officials from the heavily impacted continent with tools to better understand the demographic aspects of the disease.

The United Nations and its partner relief agencies today reiterated concern for the “worrisome” humanitarian situation in Cote d’Ivoire, where they are working hard to help hundreds of thousands of people overcome insecurity, shortages of food and basic medicines, and other lingering effects of conflict and drought.

Noting with concern that the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), negotiated under United Nations auspices, had not yet entered into force seven years after its opening for signature, the latest update conference today called on 12 hold-out countries whose ratification is key to its operability to ratify it forthwith.

It is "a moral outrage" that United Nations humanitarian operations are forced out of countries or cut back because of violence, turmoil and lack of security, the new Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said today.

Global foreign direct investment flows this year are not likely to rebound from their 21 per cent fall in 2002, a result of weak growth or slump in economic activity in many parts of the world among other factors, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Afghanistan, the most mine-affected country in the world, could be free from the threat of landmines in 10 years if clearance operations continue at current levels and donor support is sustained, according to a report published today by the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan, which is overseen by the United Nations Mine Action Service.

Summoned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to answer the "terrifying challenge" of reversing the growing threat of AIDS, Asian-Pacific countries today committed themselves to urgently address profound social problems, especially poverty, unemployment, social exclusion and deadly infectious diseases.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Kingdom Government have embarked on a resettlement programme that will enable some West Africans in need of special protection to reside in the European country.