Air-travel safety to top agenda at upcoming meeting of UN civil aviation agency

Member States of the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will focus on air-travel security at a meeting in Montreal slated to open next week.

"The terrorist attacks of 11 September in the United States represent the greatest threat ever to civil aviation security - for the first time, aircraft have been used as weapons of destruction," said Assad Kotaite, President of the Council of ICAO. "Our primary objective at this Assembly is to identify the means by which we can eradicate this new threat and restore confidence in a system that remains fundamentally safe, secure and efficient."

The ICAO Assembly will bring together the agency's 187 Contracting States from 25 September to 5 October. Among other issues on the agenda are an expansion of ICAO's Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme, regulation of air transportation services and environmental protection.