General Assembly high-level debate will proceed as planned, UN spokesman says

The United Nations General Assembly's annual high-level debate - which normally attracts the participation of heads of State and government from around the world - will proceed in New York as planned, a UN spokesman announced today.

The "general debate," which offers national leaders a chance to voice their views on a virtually all global issues of concern, will take place from 24 September to 5 October. Referring to the potential attendance of heads of State and government, spokesman Jan Fischer said, "I don't think there have been any cancellations that we are aware of."

Meanwhile, the General Assembly, which was forced to postpone by one day the opening of its annual session due to the evacuation of UN Headquarters on Tuesday, continued its work today, taking procedural decisions necessary for its work to go forward. The Assembly elected its 21 Vice-Presidents and was informed of the selection of Chairpersons for its six Main Committees.

Vice-Presidents were elected from Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Greece, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Mauritania, Nepal, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Republic of Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, as well as the five permanent members of the Security Council - China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In other news, a UN spokesman told reporters today that the high-definition television screens that had been installed during last year's Millennium Assembly on a loan basis by NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, have been permanently loaned to the UN and are outfitted in the General Assembly hall for this session.

"The Secretary-General wishes to thank NHK, and particularly its Chairman, Katsuji Ebisawa, for providing the United Nations with this state of the art system, which makes watching the General Assembly debates a much more vivid experience," spokesman Fred Eckhard said.