Annan to stress importance of key UN conferences during London visit next week

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will give a major address on Monday in London on how two major international conferences scheduled for this year – on financing for development and on sustainable development – can support the goals set at the UN's 2000 Millennium Summit, his spokesman announced today.

The address to the London School of Economics forms part of a seven-day trip to the United Kingdom and Germany, where the Secretary-General will also meet with senior government and civil society leaders, including UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, German President Johannes Rau and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Leonard Carey.

In his speech to the London School of Economics, Mr. Annan plans to make the case that the International Conference on Financing for Development set for Mexico in late March and the World Summit on Sustainable Development to begin on 26 August in South Africa are integral parts of a coherent strategy to meet the goals set by world leaders in the UN Millennium Declaration. Adopted by the largest ever gathering of world leaders in 2000, that Declaration sets targets for addressing development problems and poverty, and includes a commitment by the international community to halve the proportion of people with income of less than $1 a day by the year 2015.

Before returning to New York, Mr. Annan plans to meet with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short, as well as German Defence Minister Rudolph Scharping and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. He will also speak with German business leaders about his Global Compact between the United Nations, business and civil society.