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Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders agreed to intensify talks to reunify their island today after meeting in Geneva with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has warned that substantive agreement in the next few months is crucial to avoid potential failure.

A team of United Nations experts will begin a week-long assessment on Thursday of the human rights situation in Tunisia in the wake of the recent political unrest, it was announced today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top envoy for Afghanistan have welcomed the inauguration earlier today of the country’s new Parliament, which comes four months after the 18 September elections for the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house.

The Sri Lankan Government has made significant progress in resettling the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the decades-long war with Tamil separatists but a lot more work still needs to be done, a top United Nations humanitarian official said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the world’s sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum to overcome its decade-long deadlock and begin substantive work, warning that the very credibility of the United Nations body is at stake.

Intense fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region between Government forces and rebels has subsided but tensions persist and a resumption of violence is possible, a senior United Nations official said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all Egyptians today to ensure that political protests do not lead to further violence, and called on the Government to see this “as an opportunity to engage in addressing the legitimate concerns of the people,” his spokesman said.

The task of consolidating peace in a country emerging from conflict belongs to the entire United Nations family and not just to its peacebuilding architecture, the outgoing chair of the Peacebuilding Commission said today.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed today’s adoption by the Russian parliament of the law on ratification of the nuclear arms reduction treaty that signed last year with the United States, thereby enabling the pact to enter into force.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today welcomed the understanding reached between the country’s President and parliamentarians to hold the inauguration of the National Assembly on Wednesday.