Pushing ahead with UN reform agenda, Annan meets with regional groups

Pushing ahead with his agenda for United Nations reform, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today met with regional groups of Member States to discuss the findings of the high-level panel he appointed to submit recommendations on the issue.

The meetings came five days after Mr. Annan told the General Assembly that the coming year was critical for the UN to make the necessary reforms to deal effectively with a new globalization of threats, from HIV/AIDS, nuclear proliferation and genocide to terrorism capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people.

He met this morning with African and Asian countries to discuss the report of the 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, drafted by prominent politicians, diplomats and development experts he appointed a year ago to assess threats facing the world and recommend policy and institutional changes to deal with them.

They came out with 101 proposals for dealing with the six areas identified as being the greatest threats to worldwide security in the 21st century: continued poverty and environmental degradation, terrorism, civil war, conflict between states, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and organized crime.

Later in the day Mr. Annan was meeting with the group of Western European and other states.

In March he is due to submit to the Assembly his review on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration, a pledge world leaders made in 2000 to significantly reduce the world's ills, and he has said he will draw heavily not only on the Panel's report but also on members' discussions of it in the coming months, including the ones taking place today.