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Despite recent economic growth in Ecuador, the country’s indigenous people remain impoverished and lack adequate access to even basic social services, a United Nations human rights expert said today, warning that the absence of key legislation covering their rights is already causing violent disputes.

The human rights crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region is in some respects worse than 18 months ago, humanitarian aid is declining, the national security apparatus inspires fear among hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and rebel attacks are reported to be causing massive displacements, the top United Nations rights official said today in Khartoum.

Some 100,000 survivors of last October’s devastating earthquake in Pakistan have left temporary camps and returned to their ruined towns, villages and properties over the past month as the emergency phase of the massive relief operation begins to wind down, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) reported today.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will host a high-level meeting on Tuesday of the diplomatic Quartet, the partnership of the United Nations, European Union (EU), Russia and the United States that is seeking to bring a two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid a potentially dangerous deterioration looming on the horizon.

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has launched a series of meetings with traditional chiefs to strengthen its relationship with communities in the militia-ridden Ituri District, where security remains precarious and humanitarian access has been severely reduced in recent weeks.

In its latest expression of concern over new European immigration laws, the United Nation refugee agency has said it “regrets” Denmark’s adoption on Tuesday of amendments allowing for easier expulsion “which are not fully in line with the UN Refugee Convention.”

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today welcomed the peace agreement on Darfur signed between the Government of Sudan and the main rebel group at the inter-Sudanese talks in Abuja, and he urged the two parties outside the deal to “sign and seize the moment” to end this “tragic chapter” in the history of the country.

Argentina has filed a suit against neighbouring Uruguay, in the United Nations court that adjudicates disputes between States, for building pulp mills on the river that forms their mutual border, saying that the resulting pollution endangers the environment in defiance of a 1975 pact between the two countries.

United Nations General Assembly President Jan Eliasson today concluded a two-day visit to Nairobi where he discussed the environment and related issues with senior UN officials and Kenyan Government representatives.

The senior United Nations envoy to Timor-Leste today reported to the Security Council that five people died and 60 were injured during recent clashes in the nascent country, and urged an extension of the world body’s presence there.