Annan meets Eastern European delegations on UN reform and world threats

Finalizing the first round of discussions on reforming the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today met Eastern European delegates to discuss more than 100 recommendations from a blue-ribbon group that he empanelled to recommend ways of making the 191-member body more flexible in handling existing and emerging threats.

The report of the 16-member High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, drafted by prominent politicians, diplomats and development experts, has recommended 101 policy and institutional changes to deal with such worldwide problems as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, nuclear proliferation, genocide and terrorism.

Mr. Annan has held meetings this week with representatives from the other regional groups at the United Nations and has said he will use the panel's report and the delegates' discussions to help him draft the report he is due to submit to the General Assembly next March on the implementation of the Millennium Declaration and its eight goals (MDGs).

Both report and discussions will also figure in the General Assembly review of the document during the GA's 60th anniversary observances in September 2005.

The MDGs summarize a pledge made at a UN summit in 2000 to halve extreme poverty and its attendant ills by 2015.

The six areas the High-level Panel identified as being the greatest threats to global security in the 21st century were continued poverty and environmental degradation, terrorism, civil war, conflict between states, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and organized crime.

Mr. Annan previously met with the regional blocs from Africa, Asia, Western Europe and other States, and Latin America and the Caribbean.