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The radioactive materials needed to build a "dirty bomb" can be found in almost any country in the world, and more than 100 may have inadequate controls to prevent or even detect the theft of these materials, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said today.

Afghanistan has become the source of almost three quarters of all global illicit opium production, an industry generating an annual turnover of about $25 billion worldwide, according to the main United Nations anti-drug agency.

Iraqi petroleum exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme more than doubled over the past week, according to the UN office running the scheme, which allows Baghdad to use a portion of its crude revenues to purchase humanitarian relief.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the United Nations should strengthen their partnership to address common concerns, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in a message to an OIC meeting in Khartoum.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that the number of Eritreans repatriating from the Sudan has passed the 50,000 mark.

Discussions of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) at the upcoming Group of Eight Summit meeting in Canada could prove crucial to improving economic conditions on the continent, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today cautioned that the current atmosphere in the Middle East was not conducive to the holding of Palestinian elections and said that members of the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East - the UN, United States, Russian Federation and European Union - will need to meet to discuss the proposals made yesterday by US President George Bush.

Sierra Leone's prospects for peace are "encouraging" but the country - with international assistance - must consolidate progress and tackle the challenges ahead, Secretary-General Kofi Annan writes in a new report to the Security Council released today in New York.

On a visit to the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed the need for bringing together governments, the private sectors and organizations such as Rainbow/PUSH in order to succeed in the struggle for human dignity, equality of opportunity and economic progress.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, today voiced concern about the Israeli re-occupation of six Palestinian-controlled towns in the West Bank.