UN peacekeeping budget needs extra $1 billion by year's end, Annan says

United Nations peacekeeping missions, which are becoming increasingly numerous and more complex, will need an extra $1 billion by the end of 2004, bringing up the total funds available to nearly $4 billion, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the Security Council today.

The developed countries with specialized military capacities made only limited troop contributions and UN missions were being hampered by the lack of particular capacities, he said during a Council review of UN peacekeeping operations.

Last month there were more than 53,000 troops, military observers and civilian police serving in more than a dozen UN missions around the world - the highest number of personnel since October 1995, with another two missions on the horizon, he told the meeting chaired by Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri of Pakistan, which currently holds the Council's rotating Presidency.

Most were going beyond the limited military functions of traditional peacekeeping missions, Mr. Annan noted.

The newly multi-dimensional missions "are implementing peace agreements, helping manage political transitions, supporting economic reconstruction, organizing the return of refugees and displaced persons, assisting humanitarian aid programmes, supervising or even organizing elections, monitoring human rights, clearing minefields, disarming and demobilizing militias and reintegrating their members into the civilian economy," he said.

As the UN body mandating these difficult and dangerous missions, the Security Council needed to provide sustained solidarity and maintain clear political objectives backed by a strong international consensus, he stressed.

Meanwhile, those international staff helping to build peace must never lose sight of the fact that "it is the local population that must take the lead in the decision-making that affects their lives," Mr. Annan said.

Video of the Council meeting [3hrs]