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Just before leaving New York for Iraq, the chief United Nations weapons inspector today predicted that a formal probe in the country would begin in less than two weeks.

The United Nations "oil-for-food" programme which allows Iraq to use a portion of its crude revenues for relief aid has significantly improved the country's humanitarian situation, but acute problems remain, according to a UN report released today in New York.

The leaders of Nigeria and Cameroon have agreed to ask a United Nations-backed commission to consider ways of following up on last month's ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the rights to the disputed Bakassi peninsula, a move hailed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The United Nations is assisting about 8,000 persons on the outskirts of Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, who were displaced last month by lawless conditions in the Pool Region, the United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement today.

Aid agencies are making all efforts to assist internally displaced people, refugees and other affected populations in various parts of Côte d'Ivoire and region, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recommended that the United States grant temporary protected status to the tens of thousands of Colombian nationals currently in the country, ensuring them at least temporary protection and safety.

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has requested that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) help to ensure efficiency and transparency in the country's upcoming elections, the first national polling since the 1994 genocide.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, today welcomed the "positive outcome" of the most recent review of an international treaty against biological weapons, which just concluded its work in Geneva.

Criticizing recent moves in Italy relating to court cases against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a United Nations human rights expert today stressed that the head of Government must be equal to all citizens before the law.

Troops from New Zealand ended three years of United Nations peacekeeping operations in Timor-Leste today, handing over responsibility for the rugged area that borders West Timor to soldiers from Thailand and Singapore.