Annan looks to US group for assistance with work ahead in Iraq

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today that work ahead in Iraq will not be easy and he called upon the United Nations Association of the United States to help with leadership and with communication of the UN story to the American people.

Speaking at the Association's annual award dinner, Mr. Annan said, "The days and weeks ahead in Iraq and elsewhere will not be easy. We will need many things - strength, imagination, money, but above all leadership."

Mr. Annan told the largely business-oriented group that when corporations identify with issues, "bureaucracies move more quickly."

"As we try to determine what the United Nations does best, and what it can do better," he said, "I will look to all of you to do what you do best: telling the UN story to the American public and Government alike."

Mr. Annan was at the dinner to accept the Association's Global Humanitarian Award in the name of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN envoy slain with 21 others on 19 August in a terrorist bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad.